![]() ![]() On a dirty, cream-colored ground Carnwath wrote six vertical rows of names in black paint, as well as the age they were when they died. In a show of hers that I saw in New York at the now defunct David Beitzel Gallery more than a decade ago, I was especially taken with “Obit” (2000), a large square painting filled with the names of friends, fellow artists and strangers who had died. Squeak Carnwath, “Ship #2″ (2012), oil and alkyd on canvas (click to enlarge)Īlthough Carnwath is not a poet, she loves to use words in her paintings, especially lists. I am also quite certain that my poet-friends would agree with Carnwath’s declaration, which she has written across the surface of a number of her paintings, “Painting Is No Ordinary Object,” if they could substitute “poem” for “painting.” But, as these poets know, “painting” has an advantage over “poem” because it is both a noun and a verb, a thing and an action. I think one reason that I am interested in artists who are “painting chauvinists” is because Carnwath’s statement has analogies with a poet’s belief that words can be any form, and take on any form - that they have an elasticity that goes beyond the descriptive. ![]() ![]() It can’t be anything but paint.” The reason for this limitation was because, ‘it can be any form, and take on any form.” It can’t be pencil, crayon, or magic marker. Studio one oakland series#In July 2006, during a conversation we had in her studio, Squeak Carnwath made a series of statements that have stayed with me, beginning with: “I am a painting chauvinist.” That conversation was later published as an interview ( The Brooklyn Rail, November 2006), in which she also discussed the strict parameters that define her work: “Yes, there’s some element of me that’s very rigid where this has to be all painting, it has to be on a flat surface, and be all paint. A wall inside Squeak Carnwath’s studio (all images courtesy the artist) ![]()
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