Horned & Antlered Animals: Paintings and Monotypes by Valentina DuBasky

The brightly colored paintings and monotypes of bison, goats, stags and antelope in this collection celebrate the shapes and structure of horns and antlers–the spiraling and coiling horns of goats and sheep, the smooth horns of cattle, the meandering or lyre-shaped horns of antelope, and the regal crowns of stags–paired, branched or forked.

The paintings in Horned and Antlered Animals are artist Valentina DuBasky’s response to her travels on the Silk Routes in China, Central and Southeast Asia, and in India, where, as a Fulbright Senior Specialist, opportunities to research Buddhist cave paintings and ancient art provided new inspiration for the work. In India, she was immersed in a world of spectacular colors out of which emerged a new color palette: yellows of marigold, tints of coral, tangerine, mango, flame-orange, ochre, aubergine and sienna, the fullest range of blues, greens, violets and all the compliments.

The horned and antlered animal paintings explore the relationship between ancient art and the contemporary imagination through thick impasto paint, incised lines and expressive brushwork. Pitched on the edge of abstraction, the images may be read as animal, abstraction, landscape or still life. Each painting begins with a rectangle that is bisected or divided into areas of color to activate the balance of forms, the relationships of color and the behavior of the materials. Imagination and materials lead the way. The image is present and absent at the same time. (30 color plates)