Continuing through March 5, 2015
Prolific Belgian painter Paul-Henri Bourguignon (1906–1988) was also a journalist and photographer, as well as an accomplished art critic and avid traveler. This tautly curated exhibition consists almost entirely of portraits — a broad range of faces created in loosely figurative brushstrokes. Encompassing a spectrum of ages, genders, and races, it seems safe to speculate that Bourguignon was a man who took keen insight in observing those around him. It also is likely that Bourguignon derived material from his many travels, including years spent in Peru and Haiti (where, intriguingly, he served as Assistant to the Consul General).
The soft brushstrokes and just-shy-of-abstract figuration of the female subject in Waiting recalls the easy portraiture of Milton Avery. Seated at a table is a handsome brunette whose large hands are folded in front of her. A soft smile (really just a swipe of black cherry-colored paint) plays across her lips. She wears a mint green blouse and the stripes of Mediterranean color on the wall behind her evoke a bohemian feeling. The attributes of other subjects and settings, rendered in dark, shadowy colors, are less discernible. The sitter's features are obscured thusly in the Gothic-hued "Red Song." Painted in muddied orange, charcoal, and brackish yellow, the work appears weathered and ancient. This thoughtful exhibition introduces a painter whose sensitive portraits suggest the workings of an elegant and curious mind.
