Chair 2016

Benoit Maire made this chair, maybe not so long ago, from wood, paint, and some soft cushioning. I love the gesture of painting just one side a deep teal, like a tide that only comes so far. It reminds me a little of what David Hockney was trying to do with his swimming pools, creating a sense of depth and surface with one clean sweep. I can imagine Maire thinking about color and form, trying to make the familiar strange. It’s almost as if the chair is a blank canvas that the artist is trying to ‘charge’ with meaning, or humor, or something. It's a balancing act, you know? Do you make the paint thin or thick? How do you create rhythm and variation? What kind of conversations do you want to have with other artists and with the world? Artists are always asking themselves these questions, across generations, and this chair is just one answer, in an ongoing conversation.