On hold (dregs)
Information about the artwork
- Year2015
- MaterialAcrylic, ink, and oil on canvas
- Dimensions180 x 135 cm
- Year of acquisition2016
- Inventory numberUAB 1053
- On viewGround floor
More about the artwork
With her deep black painted canvas, Monika Baer creates a space in On hold (dregs)(2015) that seems to work according to its own rules. As if in still water, spirits labels seem to float and slowly sink to the bottom. They are painted in white and stand out from their background in an almost ghostly manner. However, the bottles themselves cannot be seen. Have they disappeared into the darkness of the canvas, or are the labels here detached from a carrier? This immateriality is counteracted by thick traces of paint squeezed from the tube in pastel rainbow tones, reminiscent of sticky-sweet frosting. In daubs and squirts, they stick to the surface of the canvas in all their material presence, thereby penetrating the viewer’s consciousness. The background, the depth of the black image space, recedes into the intangible distance, as if in a weightless state of intoxication.
