Untitled 1995

Ilse D'Hollander made this oil on canvas, about this size, sometime before she died in 1997. It looks like a branch in a pot, but then again maybe not – D’Hollander’s work is often like that, sitting on the fence between representation and abstraction. The painting is very quiet: a minimal palette of greys and browns is smeared loosely across the canvas. You can almost feel the artist working, wiping paint on and off, searching for a form, a feeling. Look at the way the paint handling creates a sense of depth. The branch appears to hover slightly in front of the pale, muted background. There's something very delicate, almost ethereal about it. D’Hollander reminds me a little of Agnes Martin, in the sense that both artists use abstraction to evoke a mood. Though D’Hollander's work is more gestural. She lets the process show, embracing uncertainty and ambiguity.