Carrière ocre & noir 1957

Jacques Busse created "Carrière ocre & noir" using oil on canvas. Busse, who lived through World War II, began painting at a young age. This work calls to mind the austere geometries explored by the De Stijl movement, but Busse complicates this lineage with tones that evoke a feeling of something more somber. The ochre and black hues signal a landscape of industry, and perhaps, also of environmental exploitation, and the kind of class divisions such labor often engenders. Abstraction offers a space to reflect on how these large geopolitical and historical forces leave their mark on the body. How might this painting evoke the long-term effects of labor on the working body, the kind of embodied knowledge that we inherit from one generation to the next? As you stand before this painting, consider what other stories might be hidden beneath its surface.