Gajeva 20 /street/ at the end of her journey 2020

Freddy Krupa made ‘Gajeva 20 /street/ at the end of her journey’ with paint on a collage of newspaper. I like the way he goes over printed matter with fluid brushstrokes in a limited palette of white and raw umber. I’m imagining Freddy in his studio there, layering lines and washes, letting the ghosts of language seep through. The white paint scumbled over the top feels almost like another layer of collage, like he is adding clouds or snow to obscure the scene. I feel a strange sense of melancholy here, perhaps related to the contrast between the printed images of people and the solitude of the painter. It makes me think of other artists who used newsprint in their work like Robert Rauschenberg or Mimmo Rotella. Artists are always in conversation, cross-pollinating ideas across time. Painting isn’t about answers, it’s about the questions and the process of grappling with them.