Sin Paintings
Howard’s ‘’Sin Paintings’’ comprise seven monumental canvases, each painted in a range of intensely saturated reds, offset by the use of bright yellow and orange. The paintings were exhibited in a solo exhibition entitled ‘‘Guilty’’, at the Bohen Foundation, New York in 2003. The paintings have a glossy, mirror-shine surface, through which a simple cruciform shape emerges. They do differ from one another; ‘‘Pride’’ is an offering of brilliant red down-strokes, with a cross discernible in its centre; the reds of ‘’Envy’’ are more individuated, with yellows breaking through here and there, and the cross far less readable; the hues of ‘’Anger’’ are in a darker, more brooding range.
Although the religious element seems obvious within these works, and the series certainly engages with issues relating to religion or morality, Howard herself has confessed that the title ‘Guilty’ in part refers to the guilty pleasure of painting.
Read more about this topic: Rachel Howard
Famous quotes containing the words sin and/or paintings:
“Cursed be the social wants that sin against the strength of youth!
Cursed be the social lies that warp us from the living truth!”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget. In this—as in other ways—they are the opposite of paintings. Paintings record what the painter remembers. Because each one of us forgets different things, a photo more than a painting may change its meaning according to who is looking at it.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)