La joie du sacrifice 2008

Carlos Sablòn made this painting, “La Joie du Sacrifice”, with paint on canvas. It is built up with a complex palette of dark greens and browns. The mark making has a beautiful simplicity. The surface of the painting is richly textured, it almost feels topographical. The background is made up of browns and greens, a kind of mysterious mulch, and the figure of a man in a pale blue suit is nailed to a cross, blood trickling down the surface, giving the painting an intense physicality. I love the tension between the material reality of the paint, and the implied narrative. Look at the way that the artist has depicted the man's shirt and tie, so crisp and clean against the deep and dirty background. Is this a nod to Magritte and his deadpan surrealism? It feels like Sablòn might be having a conversation with other artists across time and space, and that's what makes art so endlessly interesting.