Larger views of these images may be seen at the web sites of
Edward Thorp Gallery
and
Hilary Brace.

Hilary Brace at Edward Thorp Galleries

by Gordon Fitch

Hilary Brace:Untitled

At first glance, one thinks one is looking a photographs of clouds. These works -- they are far from photographs -- are presented in the earnest black frames we are so used to seeing around photographs; they're black and white, or rather, innumerable shades of gray. Then, however, we see that's there's something unsettling about them. Nature's clouds, while they often look like one thing or another, or are said to skip like lambs or brood upon the deep, have their own purposes and modes and there is always something about them which does not pertain to us, which passes us by. We may regret this distance, but we are likely also to be relieved by it; these enormous messages are not meant for us in our lowly estate.

By contrast, every particle of these drawings, for that is what they are, speaks to the mind, not at all in terms of narrative or symbol, but in terms of movement, pattern, mood, stucture, rhythm, just as music does. And yet they do remain cloudlike. It as if the gods had finally begun to make themselves plain, instead of constantly reminding us that their ways are not our ways, and so we are greeted by these abstract objects which are at the same time becoming disturbingly familiar. We are looking at a form of art which is at once naturalistic and at the same time utterly abstract, not a representation of anything but itself.

The works are relatively small, which also reminds us of photography, not the photography of today, in which prints the size of ships or large buildings are carelessly tossed out, but the photography of a previous age, constrained by technical considerations to focus carefully on a limited set of objects, a certain scene. We have to peer down into the drawings carefully, look through their surfaces, and draw them into us. That act of looking carefully, of watching and examining, seems to me to enhance their effect; spread across a large wall for yards, I doubt if the images could have the same strong effect -- the artist would have to do something else.

Interestingly, the drawings are produced by a procedure which reverses the usual sequence of events: instead of applying color to a blank surface, the artist first colors the entire surface (black, with charcoal) and then carefully removes the color to reveal the light. One may recall the dictum that "painting adds, drawing removes"; in this case, drawing by removal adds. One is reminded of other techniques of removal, but in this case, unlike most of the others, the method and effect are of infinite subtlety and textural quality. Like clouds, it is at once soft and precise.

More images by Hilary Brace can be seen on the website of the Edward Thorp Gallery, and on Hilary Brace's own website as well.
The Edward Thorp Gallery is located at
210 Eleventh Avenue, (sixth floor)
New York, New York 10001
Telephone (212) 691-6565
Fax (212) 691-4933
email: mail@edwardthorpgallery.com

h ETAOIN
November 25, 2003