In Quantum Splendor
The New Paintings of Gregory de la Haba
The aspiration of painting is to perpetually raise the bar for the possibilities of depictive meaning. This aspirational imperative is one that cannot be realized at all times, but like peering at a bright object, it can only be comprehended in quick, intense intervals, taking on the characteristic elements with appropriate effort. Gregory de la Haba’s current painterly subject is a continuation of his Light Tension works, in which a grounding in abstract form is elevated to create ambiguously portentous images that conflate physical opposites.
Significant form is seasonal, not instantaneous. It is achieved through a progression of intense bouts in which the artist confronts the limits of expression as both historically and personally defined. This is how artists since the inception of the modern era have achieved their signature styles: with a few specific works that responded to creative force of will with a rigor of idiosyncrasy. Marcel Duchamp was one such precursor. His paintings were unique additions to the expressive gestalt of his time. They were so decisively achieved that they almost immediately muddied the waters of his identity as an artist, and led to the Readymades for which he’s historically known.
In a similar mode do de la Haba’s Light Tension works present. When he originated the concept, he achieved something that one might have assumed near impossible–the conflation of physically opposed elements into a metaphysical composition to connect the viewer with strenuously achieved degrees of meaning. The new models have evolved beyond a mere signature; they are a new imprint upon the face of de la Haba’s achievement. After six years of intense focus, they are breeding into original, unique forms.
The new “Locus of Being” series features a combination of expressive and structural elements that utilize a quantum character to achieve a certain splendor. They take recognizable effects from formal plateaus of past production, yet extend them into a more elegantly complex composition. The notion of a quantum reality infuses them with profound significance. De la Haba takes the humble silhouette and places an ambivalent form dissembling before forming into something real —like an echo of a past event forever felt; like light refracted from distant stars; or a ripple in a pond following the same gravitational force that causes tsunamis, and places it at the service of painterly beauty. The spectator is placed in direct contact with an event with seemingly infinite potential. Whether it’s judged formally or metaphorically, it manifests archetypally to effect us in ways we have yet to comprehend. What we perceive in each image is kaleidoscopic, rendering into multiple meanings that do not allow facile deciphering. We enter the code of de la Haba’s vision separated from reality by the liminality of vision. We become part of the locus, as our beings reflect the future of the work.
Beautifully written and entirely comprehensible!