Artist’s Statement
Angelitos Negros
Something about the last paintings in the world. Not an apocalypse, exactly, so much as the recognition that everything now is different. The sureness of Giotto or Masaccio—or Piero—now held up to the light, in a different key. Where the moment—the instant, even—is redeemed through absolute attentiveness…which takes form in each flickering movement of the brush—not towards a goal, but li-shma—for its own sake. In and of itself. How did Kitaj put it—quoting Robert Lowell, quoting Eliot—These fragments I have shored up against my ruin. An offering, a gift even. Thank you.
But I wanted to use the word, love, as well…so, now playing in the background…Chavela Vargas, late in life, her voice smokey, just as Rodolfo promised: Pintor, si pintas con amor…
Artist’s Bio
The painter Anthony Dubovsky was born in San Diego, California, in 1945. He studied with Willard Midgette at Reed College, and has lived in Eastern Europe, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, and Jerusalem. He teaches at the University of California at Berkeley.