Talking to Frans

30 x 30. Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas.

“Talking to Frans” is an imagined dialogue with Frans Hals, George Condo, and Pablo Picasso. The background recalls Old Dutch Master techniques, particularly in Hals’s moody and atmospheric paintings, such as “The Laughing Cavalier.” Hals is credited with introducing laughing or smiling subjects in his paintings, suggested here by the bared, teeth-like forms. The figure in the foreground borrows from Cubist techniques, allowing the viewer to “see” different views simultaneously.

The juxtaposition of styles from different eras, as well as the combination of realistic flesh tones combined with graphic lines on the figure, creates an eye-catching effect and an aesthetic dissonance that refuses to resolve itself to any single conclusion. Different planes of the painting seem to bleed into each other and the figure is both moving forward to the viewer even as the background seems to emerge into the fore. The dialogue continues.