.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Blurring the line between bold abstraction and traditional figurative painting, Jonas Wood has a skill for transforming the quotidian into extraordinary portrayals of artistic lineage. A striking example of his interior scenes, Still Life with Cat and Fruit sees the painter’s detail-oriented process on full display. Sharp edges and an abundance of color push Wood’s work into the realm of Pop, but his reliance on art historical reference and a deep understanding of genre scenes create a singular style that bridges that gap between the canvases of old and contemporary techniques. Critic Roberta Smith posits that “his works negotiate an uneasy truce among the abstract, the representational, the photographic and the just plain weird. They achieve this with a dour yet lavish palette, tactile but implacably workmanlike surfaces and a subtly perturbed sense of space in which seemingly flattened planes and shapes undergo shifts in tone and angle that continually declare their constructed, considered, carefully wrought artifice” (R. Smith, "Art in Review: Jonas Wood," The New York Times, March 18, 2011). Often depicting the objects, people, and locales closest to him, Wood allows for a reimagining of the intimate moments in our everyday lives.
Set against a simple backdrop of white tile and a speckled blue and black countertop, Wood’s still life is filled with dazzling patterning that buzzes the eye and creates an electric dynamism in an otherwise ubiquitous subject. The titular feline and bowls of fruit are rendered in flat panels of color and black outlines reminiscent of the heavily stylized ukiyo-e woodblocks of Edo period Japan. A potted plant dominates much of the canvas as its striped leaves splay out in various directions. Acting as a canopy to the rest of the subjects, this foliage is typical of Wood’s output and speaks to his interest in depicting his personal experience of the world. “Of all the possible things I could paint, the thing that interests me is something that I can get close enough to in order to paint it honestly. The painters whose work means the most to me—that’s what they were painting. It was their loved ones or the stuff that was in their house. It was always this hyperpersonal thing to me” (J. Wood, quoted in D. Nadel, Jonas Wood: Interiors, Los Angeles, 2012, p. 56). The artist’s attention to detail is revealed in the meticulous depictions of each spot and crease in the bananas, mangoes, and oranges, as well as the mottled surfaces and branded stickers of two pineapples. The cat, itself made up of a dark black void marked with brindle patches, connects directly with the viewer through its two searing eyes. By including this living animal, Wood allows for a more active entry point into his work. Instead of a scene that sits quietly while he paints it, the cat introduces a temporal element not always seen in the painter’s oeuvre.
Though works like Still Life with Cat and Fruit are decidedly of the moment, they pull from a rich history of representational painting. In particular, Wood has noted his indebtedness to the work of David Hockney. Depicting his subjects with the same kind of cool California approach to bright color and even light, Wood also recognizes his predecessor’s inspirations. “[T]he thing about Hockney or Alex Katz or Lucian Freud or any of those people that I’m super into, they were into those modern painters, too,” he explains. “So I get to look at Matisse or Picasso through their work” (J. Wood, quoted in M. Mendelsohn, “Jonas Wood--Mural”, Gagosian Magazine, May 22, 2017, n.p.). By consciously establishing an artistic lineage, Wood is able to create concrete connections between the centuries. In so doing, works like the present example become representations of painting’s evolution as well as potent illustrations of artistic influence.
Set against a simple backdrop of white tile and a speckled blue and black countertop, Wood’s still life is filled with dazzling patterning that buzzes the eye and creates an electric dynamism in an otherwise ubiquitous subject. The titular feline and bowls of fruit are rendered in flat panels of color and black outlines reminiscent of the heavily stylized ukiyo-e woodblocks of Edo period Japan. A potted plant dominates much of the canvas as its striped leaves splay out in various directions. Acting as a canopy to the rest of the subjects, this foliage is typical of Wood’s output and speaks to his interest in depicting his personal experience of the world. “Of all the possible things I could paint, the thing that interests me is something that I can get close enough to in order to paint it honestly. The painters whose work means the most to me—that’s what they were painting. It was their loved ones or the stuff that was in their house. It was always this hyperpersonal thing to me” (J. Wood, quoted in D. Nadel, Jonas Wood: Interiors, Los Angeles, 2012, p. 56). The artist’s attention to detail is revealed in the meticulous depictions of each spot and crease in the bananas, mangoes, and oranges, as well as the mottled surfaces and branded stickers of two pineapples. The cat, itself made up of a dark black void marked with brindle patches, connects directly with the viewer through its two searing eyes. By including this living animal, Wood allows for a more active entry point into his work. Instead of a scene that sits quietly while he paints it, the cat introduces a temporal element not always seen in the painter’s oeuvre.
Though works like Still Life with Cat and Fruit are decidedly of the moment, they pull from a rich history of representational painting. In particular, Wood has noted his indebtedness to the work of David Hockney. Depicting his subjects with the same kind of cool California approach to bright color and even light, Wood also recognizes his predecessor’s inspirations. “[T]he thing about Hockney or Alex Katz or Lucian Freud or any of those people that I’m super into, they were into those modern painters, too,” he explains. “So I get to look at Matisse or Picasso through their work” (J. Wood, quoted in M. Mendelsohn, “Jonas Wood--Mural”, Gagosian Magazine, May 22, 2017, n.p.). By consciously establishing an artistic lineage, Wood is able to create concrete connections between the centuries. In so doing, works like the present example become representations of painting’s evolution as well as potent illustrations of artistic influence.