Michael West: Epilogue at Hollis Taggart
I’m learning about Michael West in the wrong order. I’d seen a couple of her pieces dotted around previously, and then a larger selection at Heroines of Abstract Expressionism, but this exhibit at Hollis Target was the first time I’d seen a solo show of her work and it was a collection of her mid-career paintings.
“The future of art lies in colour - but I am personally more interested in an affect of dark and light - the colour explains the space - the more complicated the space the simpler the colour”
The previous work I’d seen was full of colour, but Epilogue is focused on her mostly black and white paintings from the 1960s and 1970s. It seems that she struggled with whether to use colour or a monochrome palette in her work for most of her career.
“To this day, I would rather look at black and white than anything else.”
The Eclipse (Eclipse in Reverse)
Oil on canvas, 1964-67
Untitled
Oil on canvas, 1947
Born Corinne Michelle West (1908-1991), West changed her name to Michael in the hope of being taken more seriously in an art world that did its very best to ignore her, as it did with most women artists. With these recent exhibits, West is finally receiving some recognition for the instrumental role she played in shaping the abstract expressionism movement.
West took the opportunity of painting with a limited colour palette to explore different textures and densities on her canvases. Applying paint through a combination of traditional brushwork, dripping, pouring, and the use of a palette knife.
Snow Storm
oil on canvas, 1974
White Writing
oil on canvas, 1966
I think it can be really difficult to properly appreciate the texture of a painting from a photograph and having seen these pieces in the flesh, I can tell you that they are packed full of texture. To me there is something meditative about these works, they make me think of a conversation.
Now that West is finally starting to get the recognition that she deserves, hopefully we will learn more about this incredible artist and her work.