Many artists move from realism to abstraction over a career. In Thoughts, Chen Bachar did it on a single small canvas, and found the visual language he has worked in ever since.
ARTiculAction Art Review singled the painting out for the dialogue between colour and texture, and asked how his psychological make-up shapes his palette.
Thoughts · Oil on canvas · 60×60 cm – View the artwork
The question
Another interesting piece of yours that has particularly impressed us is entitled Thoughts: the dialogue established by colors and texture is a crucial part of your style. How much does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones you decide to use in a piece and in particular, how do you develop a painting's texture? Moreover, any comments on your choice of "palette" and how it has changed over time?
ARTiculAction Art Review – Josh Ryder & Barbara Scott
In Chen's words
In the Painting "Thoughts" a quest began to search a unique line that speaks directly from the subconscious. From an output of realism to the abstract. I didn't want a purely abstract painting, I wanted the balance.
As a realistic character she waited for half a year without a background, then I decided to look for her "thoughts" through the lines I draw on the canvas without desire for realism or perfection, Subconscious to hand. I wanted to illustrate what she goes through with two colors, orange – animality, creativity and sexual power, and the Purple color that is very high spiritually, a color that channels a huge femininity.
It was there, in the search for my unique painterly language, I found the direction from the collection of intuitive lines, extract elements to contact with the viewer, like her breasts, the eagle, parts of the body, all of them exiting her Clothes, the exterior we wear on our bodies comes out to the world and reflects the sensuality and also the messages that are unclear.
This painting really started at the end of my studying in Avni, at that time painting a nude model really impressed me, a round and pleasant-looking woman's body, women as something very mysterious in my life, I was curious to get in touch with my feminine side and take out lines that transfer this feeling, lines that transfers thought's not necessarily by text, but by something around you.
The format I chose was small and square, I wanted to feel safe in a small format, exploring the new language and then turn to large canvases. I had the need for an intimate format, as a part of the work.
Chen Bachar
About the work
Look closely and the painting reads in two layers: a realistically painted woman with green hair, and around her a swirl of intuitive orange and purple lines from which forms emerge, a breast, a bird, parts of a body.
Two ideas from this answer recur across Chen’s work: colour chosen for its psychological meaning, and the half-realistic, half-abstract balance that later appears in large portraits such as John Lennon and Amy Winehouse.
More from the interview
- Chen Bachar Interview: Ten Questions from ARTiculAction Art Review
- Childhood: A Rusty Tricycle as a Self-Portrait
- The Clown and the Question: What Is Art For Today?
- Steve Jobs: Why the Portrait Is Split Across Two Canvases
- John Lennon: A Pop-Art Portrait Built on Colour Psychology
- Venice and the Choice of Materials: Oil, Watercolour, Spices and Sand