Black and White Geometry

Simone Lucas (German, 1973-)
"Not Titled Yet", 2009
Oil on canvas
70.87 x 70.87 in.
image: Jack Tilton Gallery http://www.jacktiltongallery.com/more_artwork/lucas_more/2nd./Lucas.NotTitledYet.Email.Cap.gif

Something about this artist's paintings intrigues me. Their simplicity, geometry and monochrome palette with just a touch of color. The color is usually defined within the geometry and in this painting in particular the women paint that geometry, the color coming from their brushes.

"Their idea is as simple as it is ingenious, and involves infiltrating black-and-white images taken from 19th- and early-20th-century photographs with colorful designs suggestive of the pictorial avant-garde of the same historical period, colorful spheres, checks and other geometrical designs." (Walter Robinson, Weekend Update http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/robinson/weekend-update10-16-09.asp)

More by Simone Lucas

Medieval statuary

Shrine of the Virgin, ca. 1300
German; Made in Rhine Valley
Oak, linen covering, polychromy, gilding, gesso; Overall: 14 1/2 x 13 5/8 x 5 1/8in. (36.8 x 34.6 x 13cm) closed: W. 5in. (12.7cm)
Metropolitan Museum of Art (17.190.185) (Image)

In a search for carved ivory (which will surely be appearing soon in a future post) I came across thia beautiful statuette/altarpiece.

When closed we see the virgin Mary nursing the Christ Child, the child holding a dove (of the Holy Spirit). When opened it turns into an altarpiece. The interior of the 2 side wings of the altarpiece have painted scenes of the nativity.