MICHAEL S. MOORE
THREE PAINTINGS
November 26, 2021 – January 12, 2022
The Roll Up Project is pleased to present paintings by Michael S. Moore. For over six decades, Moore has painted expansive landscapes based on his travels through California, Colorado, and Nevada. His paintings sometime depict existing landscapes, but many are reflections of the scenes he has internalized.
Violet Cloud (2021) is installed in the Third Street windows. It depicts a mesa in the distance, with an immense violet-tinged cloud hanging above it. In our rain-starved state, it’s a welcome sight, practically a mirage. It conjures the smell of wet dirt and rocks, the thundering power of the deluge, and the quiet calm after the cloud has passed. This timeless landscape could represent a place from 1,000 years ago, today, or some time in the distant future. Moore’s careful attention to color and composition transforms narrow bands of color into a moody and immersive scene.
The two paintings filling the Harrison Street window, Overpaint 1979 (1979) and Overpaint 5 (1979), highlight a different moment in the artist’s oeuvre. In the late 1970s, Moore took inspiration from comic book illustrations, especially the Adventures of Tintin, which he read to his son. (See below)The Overpaintpaintings are energetic and slightly disorienting, in part because the crisp comic-style linework implies a representational scene. It is as if we are in the middle of a crash-boom-bang moment in a comic strip, and we are challenged to find the ground, the walls, or anything recognizable. Within this active environment, there are abstract lines, curves, and fragments to follow, all filled in with bright yellows and pinks tempered with soft blues, tan, gray, and greens. This series may be interpreted as an inner landscape, or an interpretation of complex emotions. It pulls together aspects of formal abstraction, action painting, and stylized illustration.
Moore’s compositions remind us of the powerful role artists play in reflecting the world around us. In the midst of another stomach-churning phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, these paintings offer viewers a moment of pure imagination, a space to look, smell, listen, and consider
217 Harrison Street and 307 3rd Street Oakland, CA 94607 Hours Door: Monday—Friday: 10:00AM–5:00PM Window: always visible
AL: And speaking of Tintin, there is the Tintin Car Collection
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