Landscape II 1995

Editor: This is Eugene Brands' "Landscape II" from 1995, an oil painting that, while abstract, still feels like it hints at natural forms. I'm curious about how he built up the surface; it looks almost hurried, very immediate. What strikes you about this work? Curator: Well, I immediately key into the application of the paint itself. Look at how Brands uses the materiality of oil paint to challenge traditional landscape conventions. See how thick and gestural those strokes are? Editor: Yes, the black mass in the foreground especially. It seems almost sculptural. Curator: Exactly. It's less about depicting a landscape and more about the act of making. Think about the labor involved—the physical effort of applying the paint. Does it remind you of anything in particular? Editor: The directness maybe recalls Abstract Expressionism? Like de Kooning’s landscapes but less frantic perhaps? Curator: In some ways. But Brands isn't necessarily trying to convey pure emotion. Consider the social context: landscape painting has a long, complex history tied to ideas of land ownership, national identity… He takes this tradition and subverts it through his emphasis on the process, the raw material, the physicality of creation. The work turns in on itself, it implicates labor directly. Editor: So, instead of seeing a serene vista, we're meant to consider the act of painting itself, its own kind of labor. It changes how you think about these traditions of oil-on-canvas, really decentering established conventions around painting, even about what laboring might mean today. Curator: Precisely. By foregrounding materiality and process, Brands challenges the boundaries between fine art and something more akin to physical labor. A great case-study. Editor: Thanks! I hadn’t thought about it that way. I was focused on the shapes but the medium has so much to say.