Lot Essay
‘I follow the local sport wherever I live. I love Boston sports, Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, but I don’t hate any other teams. I went to a Dodgers game last night. The sports thing is funny. A lot of people think my work on the subject is based on being a super sports fan, because I’m from Boston or because I make these nostalgic pictures, but really the whole sports theme is just a vehicle for practicing portraiture’
(J. Wood, quoted in E. Leisz Carr, ‘Super Sports Fan: An Interview with Jonas Wood’, Art in America, 9 October 2013).
All Blue Australian Open, 2012 is an inspiring work from the superlative series of Grand Slam tennis tournaments painted by Jonas Wood. Here, the artist depicts the hard court at Melbourne Park using a vibrant blue hue, filling an otherwise geometric composition with an energetic luminosity while flat blocks of animated red and white contrast against the dark background. The tennis court, devoid of players, referee or audience, turns into a quasi-abstract landscape with the rectangles of sharp colour, creating the sense of expectation that builds up before each of the matches during the tournament. For Wood, sports are part of the endless library of memories that feed his imagination. A self-confessed sports fan, the artist explains, ‘I follow the local sport wherever I live. I love Boston sports, Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, but I don’t hate any other teams. I went to a Dodgers game last night. The sports thing is funny. A lot of people think my work on the subject is based on being a super sports fan, because I’m from Boston or because I make these nostalgic pictures, but really the whole sports theme is just a vehicle for practicing portraiture’ (J. Wood, quoted in E. Leisz Carr, ‘Super Sports Fan: An Interview with Jonas Wood’, Art in America, 9 October 2013). There is a sense of nostalgia to All Blue Australian Open; one that permeates his entire oeuvre, giving the viewer a glimpse into Wood’s personal territory.
Wood’s paintings record the artist’s every day; his studio, his friends and family and anything he sees that catches his eye. The Los Angeles-based artist, however, does not paint from life as these source images might suggest. His process is rather one of sketching from memory, looking at photographs or even at his TV screen, and amalgamating all these different source materials into a final composition. At times Wood will even quote himself; his studio paintings are full of his own finished canvases or works in progress, and he will often use old drawings or paintings as a departure point for new works. Bold colours and flat expanses of paint populate Wood’s work, and have frequently prompted comparison with Matisse’s geometric approach to the picture plane or Hockney’s photographic experiments and figurative style. The artist, who indeed cites both as influences, shares with the painters a singular understanding of perspective and colour, as well as the inclination to turn to what is closest to him for inspiration, imbuing his works with a sense of familiarity and intimacy that is both appealing yet strangely ambiguous.
(J. Wood, quoted in E. Leisz Carr, ‘Super Sports Fan: An Interview with Jonas Wood’, Art in America, 9 October 2013).
All Blue Australian Open, 2012 is an inspiring work from the superlative series of Grand Slam tennis tournaments painted by Jonas Wood. Here, the artist depicts the hard court at Melbourne Park using a vibrant blue hue, filling an otherwise geometric composition with an energetic luminosity while flat blocks of animated red and white contrast against the dark background. The tennis court, devoid of players, referee or audience, turns into a quasi-abstract landscape with the rectangles of sharp colour, creating the sense of expectation that builds up before each of the matches during the tournament. For Wood, sports are part of the endless library of memories that feed his imagination. A self-confessed sports fan, the artist explains, ‘I follow the local sport wherever I live. I love Boston sports, Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, but I don’t hate any other teams. I went to a Dodgers game last night. The sports thing is funny. A lot of people think my work on the subject is based on being a super sports fan, because I’m from Boston or because I make these nostalgic pictures, but really the whole sports theme is just a vehicle for practicing portraiture’ (J. Wood, quoted in E. Leisz Carr, ‘Super Sports Fan: An Interview with Jonas Wood’, Art in America, 9 October 2013). There is a sense of nostalgia to All Blue Australian Open; one that permeates his entire oeuvre, giving the viewer a glimpse into Wood’s personal territory.
Wood’s paintings record the artist’s every day; his studio, his friends and family and anything he sees that catches his eye. The Los Angeles-based artist, however, does not paint from life as these source images might suggest. His process is rather one of sketching from memory, looking at photographs or even at his TV screen, and amalgamating all these different source materials into a final composition. At times Wood will even quote himself; his studio paintings are full of his own finished canvases or works in progress, and he will often use old drawings or paintings as a departure point for new works. Bold colours and flat expanses of paint populate Wood’s work, and have frequently prompted comparison with Matisse’s geometric approach to the picture plane or Hockney’s photographic experiments and figurative style. The artist, who indeed cites both as influences, shares with the painters a singular understanding of perspective and colour, as well as the inclination to turn to what is closest to him for inspiration, imbuing his works with a sense of familiarity and intimacy that is both appealing yet strangely ambiguous.