Process
WILHELM SENSAL
I saw Sensal’s work at the Tate for the first time in person. Three images of deceased Colonel Gaddafi, these historical events that occurred in a world where everyone has a camera in their pocket…. His paintings were much larger than I had expected. I have been a fan of his paintings before knowing they were his. They have been saved to my “paintings I like” Pinterest board since before the masters. His use of space made the images make sense as smaller works to me. Even though his painterly gestures tend to be grand, they could be scaled up or down to any size depending on the scale of the brush. I can sense that, like Tala, Sensel celebrates the medium of paint in the brushstrokes he uses.
Willhelm Sensal mostly paints from photographs. In his interview on Bloomsberg’s series: Brilliant Ideas, Sensal said he “knows the subjects is important but often not why, sometimes its like he understands through the act of painting.”(Bloomberg Quicktake: Originals, 2022)
This is a sensation I am experiencing through my own practice as I paint from old family photographs. There is a unique feeling when I take these images/snapshots of the past and reduce them into shapes and colour. The image travels through me. I have melded with the image. There is no seam between the time it represents and who I am now as an adult. This creates a new image *not an imitation*. I can then pull away and distort portions of the image that don't interest me and focus in on the elements that I want the viewer to see.
One of my favourite paintings of Sensal is an untitled painting of a girl encased in green as she washes her face from the dark black pool. He is keeping paint underworked and letting the brush strokes determine the subject and build the images. The majority of the painting is black. The strokes at the bottom and the way it angles/fades into the green are enough to suggest the 3D form of the sink/pool while creating a great sense of depth and nothingness in a very simple and efficient manner. Finishing a painting in one day means having this dialogue with yourself about what is sacrificed for efficiency. The urgency in the strokes brings the viewer into where Sensal is when he is making the work similar to Tala Madani.
The blur of the girl's face merged and melted into one continuous brush stroke with the water. This blur effect now reminds me of the painting I did of my mum in my grandmother's kitchen in Iran 2003 - her face was blurred in the reference image. It was a soothing experience to let the quality of the paint and the brush mark communicate this effect.
Bloomberg Quicktake: Originals, 2022. Wilhelm Sasnal and the Power of Image | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 47. [video] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK0Xd1-iZdo&ab_channel=BloombergQuicktake%3AOriginals> [Accessed 14 June 2022].