David Sorensen - Studio 3.0

 

 

Vie des Arts – Automne 2004

Mexique
David Sorensen
Horizon Series

by John K. Grande

Light and colour again become central to David Sorensen’s latest series of paintings. These works are simultaneously a return to a formal geometry and compositional concern, and yet they are likewise more evolved and often work on and with a horizon line. They can be read as abstract landscapes or alternatively as abstract formal compositions. There is a play with dark linear meeting points between the colours and textures, and an emphatic use of brushwork in the sky areas. A certain density and structure in the overall composition reminds one of Nicholas de Stael but the colours are warm and southern. It also creates a sense that these are not purely static formal exercises, but that there is a broader open sense of gesture. Artists that come to mind as influences … Diebenkorn, Hoffman, and Rothko.

Sorensen believes in the act of art. These paintings witness his gradual opening up to new horizons. The light, energy, and colour of the Mexican landscape that he has visited in recent years inspires these new paintings. As Sorensen states, “In the present Horizon series, I am looking into a familiar energy and space, in someways related to postmodern installation works like those of James Turrell and Olafur Eliasson. Without abandoning painting or nature, I am hopefully accessing states of mind of some inner substance and reward. Most of this series has been painted in Mexico. To me there is still this celebration worth the paint and it’s about an open door in the artist that used to be called the muse.”

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