Lin Rich
Texas French Bread, 1722 S. Congress
There is a coruscating sensuality in the still-life paintings and portrait works of Lin Rich. The observed objects and people of everyday living – the folds of a pillow thrown casually into the crook of a chair, a plant fading and redefining its growth as the sun shifts from summer to early fall, a therianthropic female reclined and reading – take on the luxuriance of color and form well-applied. The clumsy decorative ground and the reflection itself in Reflection of a Woman Reading I may be regarded as a means of nullifying time, thus creating an eternal figure. The objects of daily life have been a favorite subject matter for painters since Greek times when depictions of flowers, fruit, fish, and food were painted on walls, worked in mosaic on the floors of palaces and baths, and used to adorn the walls of tombs to ensure that the deceased would be well fed in the afterlife. Still lifes in Western European painting were mainly used as an adjunct to esoteric Christian subjects, developing into a complex symbolic language during Medieval and Renaissance times. Rich has a developed abstract iconography, not immoderately elaborate or complicated. She emphasizes the vibrancy within marginalized objects and gestures. The “oomph” of a musician’s shoulder as he rides to the perfect note is a clear example of gesticulation captured by the use of a wet-on wet technique, using paint straight from the tube.
This article appears in October 14 • 2005.