Abstract
In the eight paintings currently on view at Fahrenheit Madrid, Lichtman’s daughters have grown into sophisticated young women occupying with confidence the space of their home. We see the father bringing in groceries, making dinner. We see the mother setting up the table or getting a moment of rest in the reclining chair on the porch. The familiarity of daily life is complicated but the formal interplay of color and composition, tonality and chroma are shifted to guide light and shadow as way to amplify the mundane. The psychology of the players becomes complex as the space unfolds at the surface of the painting. The color and shifting perspectives unexpectedly disjoint the family as they walk through their house lost in their own thoughts. While one figure is caught in a stark light, another is spliced by the shadows. The spatial structure of each painting reminds us of the complexity of a cinematic mis-en-scene. The abstract and material elements of painting are seen in the invented shapes, revised marks, and variation in surfaces and the exposed canvas. The durational qualities collected in the act of painting are part of the overall scene.