Mary Lovelace O’Neal’s exhibition of recent work at SFMOMA attracts from her continued experimentation with supplies and colour, in addition to altering relations between abstraction and figuration over the previous 60 years. Her signature use of lampblack pigment, a powdered soot created from burning oil, not solely performs with floor depth however, for the reason that Sixties, has expressed parts of the expertise of Blackness itself. At 82, Lovelace O’Neal continues to be experimenting with these concepts in new works all through her present, which is on view by means of October 20.
You first stumbled on lampblack pigment at an artist residency on the Skowhegan College of Portray and Sculpture. How was that have?
I used to be there as an undergraduate and was very uninterested in not having any breakthroughs that summer time. I used to be going loopy attempting to get one thing that was my very own—one thing that felt proper. All we had to do this summer time was paint and eat, nevertheless it was very intense. I used to be so depressed and was headed again to my dorm. On the best way, I handed the sculpture barns, the place that they had a discover on the door. Once I went in, I seen this massive pot effervescent, and it turned out to be black effervescent wax. It was lovely. The artist who was making it gave a chat. I used to be actually within the materials. After everybody left, I lingered as a result of I needed to see how that had come to be. He mentioned I may have it and he left luggage of this black stuff. In a pair journeys, I had taken his massive pot and his beeswax. In some unspecified time in the future, I made a decision to play with what I had seen. These little black luggage contained lampblack pigment that later grew to become essential in my work.
How did you start incorporating that new medium into your canvases?
I used to be doing lots of drawing with charcoal and pastels, wanting backwards and forwards between what I used to be making and these clean white canvases that my now-ex-husband constructed and gessoed for me. On the time, I used to be fascinated about what was occurring theoretically, with an argument about flatness in portray. Someday, I acquired nerve sufficient to hit an enormous white canvas with a few of this black stuff. I hit it with a chalkboard eraser and it didn’t take so nicely. I assumed, Perhaps if I push these items proper in in order that it encounters the fiber—there’s no means something might be flatter than that.
It seems like there was lots of early experimentation for what has develop into a really prevalent materials in your work.
It’s nearly house: a spot you possibly can go into. When you resolve you may get into that canvas, it’s possible you’ll discover butterflies, strains, or zippers. It was not solely about fixing the issue of flatness, nevertheless; the blackness was additionally a response to creating extra narration and chatting with the wants of resistance.
How do you see these figures and parts taking part in out throughout the house?
The strains set up house or a blockage. If I put a bunch collectively to make a grid, then you possibly can’t get by means of that. Strains and marks are containers. I like how they set up an area of their very own even if you’re not attempting. In the event that they get at a sure angle, they arrange an area for you and extra house that you just didn’t know was there.
A number of the works comprise these sort of humanoid people who should not your on a regular basis folks. By way of the figurative, our seeing world is so stuffed with colour. All the things is outlined that means. Perhaps in some unspecified time in the future through the night time, simply earlier than daybreak, there’s this silence, this quietness, and this darkness. Earlier than you already know it, you discover a means along with your little beady eye to get into that darkness. After which it surrounds you and embraces you—it cradles you. I’m engaged on all these issues. I’m understanding of impulse. I’m understanding doing no matter I wish to do: scribbling on and making black areas that I imagine you possibly can’t penetrate.
How did you consider assembling the works in your SFMOMA present?
I didn’t. I’m on the stage working with no matter involves me. I don’t have to fret about college students, I don’t have to offer lectures, and I don’t have to grasp a fucking factor I’m doing. I did this truly on a bribe from my husband who mentioned that if I might keep in Merida, Mexico, he would construct a studio for me. Once I got here into it—the sunshine, the flooring, the heat of being there—was magical and scary as a result of I didn’t know the place to start. All I wanted to do was to get in there. Due to a few of my disabilities now, I’ve to maneuver in a different way. I’ve to attempt to get onto my ladders and chairs very in a different way as a result of I don’t have a ton of mobility like I had as a younger lady. However my head continues to be there.