I Hear This Painting

FREEWHEELING
City Gallery
New Haven
Nov. 20, 2024

FREEWHEELING is a solo exhibit at City Gallery featuring the artwork of new gallery member Robert Jacoby.

Jacoby has an interesting approach to his creations. He has been painting since the 1980s, switching to an abstract style in 2010. In his own words, ​“The transition was initially to explore ​‘duende,’ the internal force inherent to flamenco which inspires blazing performance ranging from subtle to flamboyant and tragic to joyful. It encouraged a freewheeling style, guided often, and perhaps unsurprisingly, by spontaneous responses to emerging composition and color, but always seeking forceful expression. Thus, I give priority to authenticity as I perceive it over deference to ​‘voice.’”

I’ve never really thought about ​“voice” as something that a painting can have. Paintings can have meaning. They can even have something to say. But voice? What does that mean? And what does it mean to eschew voice in a painting?

Perhaps voice means narrative. Paintings can tell a story just as easily as they capture a single moment in time. The piece Entropy in Black and White implies a narrative. Entropy is the procession from order to chaos, so the painting could represent change over time.

But Jacoby isn’t interested in voice. I think the key images in the painting are the three large dark splotches in the center of the canvas. They look like a shattering has taken place, as if a new universe is lurking behind the white-gray wall. Perhaps the white-gray isn’t representative of entropy, but the dark splotches are as they punch their way through the facade.

Duende Reawakened is perhaps the most straightforward piece in the collection. While still abstract, it clearly evokes the image of a flamenco dancer, contorted impossibly as the spirit of duende takes over. In researching, I learned that duende also refers to a folklore creature from Spanish speaking countries. They are comparable to dwarves, gnomes and leprechauns, although some traditions describe them as being closer to nymphs, and that they can even alter their size and shape.

This painting seems to be marrying both. The duende has taken humanoid form. But magic allows it to twist and gyrate in ways that would leave a human being broken. It’s the duende spirit that has moved the creature so. It spends the evening dancing, enjoying the human world as long as it can.

Portal 2 got me to start to reevaluate some of my preconceived notions about judgment, sin and punishment. The white streak of paint just left of center looks like a spirit being drawn upward. It’s not escaping from the tumult below, but instead heading right into it. The clashing clouds of color are enveloping it. In particular, the red-orange splash of color just above the center looks threatening and dangerous, leaning in to take the spirit to a place it may not want to go. Our understanding of heaven and hell has the former in the clouds and the latter in some nondescript location which is below us. How do we know this, though? It’s just as possible that we ascend into the bad place.

“Forceful expression” is one of those phrases that stick in you like a splinter. As a writer, I’ve felt that I’ve become too safe, too placid in my expression. I don’t mean that I’m going to start being mean in my reviews. But where are the phrases that pop out? The words that make hairs stand on end? The challenging ideas, half-formulated and sharp with rough edges but bursting with possibility? When I look at Jacoby’s work, that’s what I see. It’s inspiring art because it jabs into you, painfully and forcefully. I want to do that too.

NEXT
FREEWHEELING continues at City Gallery through Nov. 29. 

Jamil heads to the theater to see the Gladiator sequel.