PAINT/PRINT Brief: Process To Image Week 3. Day 2. Artist Research

Artist Research: Judy Millar (b 1957, New Zealand).

Judy Millar once discussed with Anthony Byrt (‘How to Paint Backwards’, 2002), that at one point “she was frustrated because her gestures were limited by arm-span, which was limiting the size of the canvas and keeping the forms fairly closed. So there’s always been this desire to get bigger and to be in the work more.”  

Millar paints in a range of sizes, and on a variety of surfaces, from small paper works framed behind glass to more well-known large abstract paintings on canvas and linen.  I enjoy seeing her work computerised, industrially manufactured and enlarged on a massive scale in a sculptural context which is both striking in black and white, and/or colour.

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I personally am attracted to large abstract paintings that promote contrasting atmospheres such as warmth and thickness, coolness and thinness.  I like a surface to disappear under heavy, sticky, thick gestures and paint such as the works of Willem de Kooning (1904-1987), Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011), Gerhard Richter (b 1932) and André Hemer (b 1981). Their works of art tempt me to step within their luxurious mud pool soups, and to feel their abundance of shapes, lines and colours.  

Millar’s work is not oppressively saturated with sticky chunky paint forms.  Instead, her translucent, thinly applied works command a different emotion. They reveal a thin cobweb three-dimensionality, and a lightness of being which curls, unfurls and ripples.  Yet, I still feel I could penetrate and immerse myself in her watery world works.

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Her Postmodern swirling, swerving gestural marks appeal to me, because they move with fluidity like a dancer.  She subtly produces layers of attenuated paint to the surface using tools like a mop, rag or brush, but sometimes she shifts paint with the side of her hand, and recently an air brush has been utilised (Figures 14, 15).

Millar carefully considers the construction of the canvas space, spending time preparing and making the surface very smooth with an exact, and perfectly primed, gessoed and waxed finish.  The paint pigment via the turps cuts through the wax to grip onto the ground surface.  Oils imported from Holland are uncut by other chemicals or filler agents.  She executes her paintings quickly (like is recommended for this painting brief), with large bodily gestures. Millar shifts the thin runny mixture of paint and turps, which washes and flows across her painting surfaces. 

Bibliography

Gow Langsford Gallery. Antony Bryt. ‘How to Paint Backwards.’ Judy Millar Essay, Book.

Gow Langsford Gallery. Judy Millar. Accessed October 6, 2021. https://www.gowlangsfordgallery.co.nz/artists/judy-millar/available-works

Gow Langsford Gallery. André Hemer. Accessed October 6, 2021. https://www.gowlangsfordgallery.co.nz/artists/andré-hemer

Guggenheim Museum. Willem de Kooning. Accessed October 6, 2021. https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/992.

The Museum of Modern Art. ‘Free Form’. Jackson Pollock. Accessed October 6, 2021. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/80170.

Robin Rosenberg. Helen Frankenthaler. Accessed October 6, 2021. https://robinrosenbergfineart.com/portfolio/helen-frankenthaler/.

Vedovi Gallery. Gerhard Richter. Accessed October 6, 2021. https://www.vedovigallery.com/artists/59-gerhard-richter/works/344-gerhard-richter-fuji-1996/.

Wikipedia. Jackson Pollock. Accessed October 6, 2021.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Pollock.