Bruce Thurman
has crafted imaginary dossiers and archives, complete with binder rings,
serving as evidence in the artist’s personal film noir. Each opened
notebook reveals two randomly selected pages, containing quick sketches,
magazine illustrations, personal notes, scribbled checklists, glossy
portraits… the remains of an investigator’s day.
This is a world of foxes and hounds, of high-heels and gumshoes in which
the most benign object could be crucial. Lipstick cases, whisky glasses, a
matchbook cover, and dirty ashtrays… the parody of an unreleased B
thriller.
Yellow dominates: Dick Tracy’s trench coat, the yellow legal pad-sheets,
characters caught under the glare of a mercury- vapor arc lamp.
Taken separately, these paintings could be seen as the individual chapters
of a book. When grouped, they invite the viewer to a multi-layered
experience of pictorial storytelling and mystery solving.
Ida
Kummer
Vanbrunt
Gallery,
460 Mainstreet, Beacon, NY 12508
