Monologue 1991

Callum Innes made this painting titled "Monologue," and it exemplifies his interest in process-based abstraction. Innes, working in Scotland amid the late 20th-century's shifting cultural landscape, developed a unique approach to painting. He erases layers of paint with solvents. This act of removal and revelation challenges the traditional notion of painting as pure addition and creation. Think about what this means for the artist’s identity. Is he constructing or deconstructing a cultural identity? The work asks us to consider the emotional resonance of absence, the power of what is not there, and what histories it holds. It provokes questions about memory, loss, and the transient nature of experience. What do you think of when you consider that Innes himself once said, "The paintings are about what they are, and nothing else"?