Culture

Painted from inside an asylum, looking at the sky through a barred window. Swirling, alive, enormous. Meaning found in the cosmos when the human world has become unbearable.

An old man looking at himself without vanity or flattery, with complete attention. Among the most searching examinations of what a person actually is that painting has ever attempted.

Fourteen large black paintings in an octagonal room in Houston. No imagery, no narrative - just the weight of presence. Visitors sit, sometimes for hours. Meaning found in sustained attention to something that will not explain itself.