August Vance · No. 110

White on White

White on White is abstraction reduced almost to the point of disappearance. August Vance layers whites and warm bone in low relief, building a surface where the composition is carried not by colour, and barely by tone, but by texture alone and the shadows it casts as light rakes across it. The reference is unmistakable and deliberate — the radical white paintings of the modernist tradition, from Malevich's white square to Ryman's lifelong investigation of the monochrome — yet Vance's handling is sensual rather than severe, every ridge, trough and trowel-mark catching the light differently as the day moves around the room. The painting refuses the quick read; it asks the viewer to slow down, to step closer, to look the way one might read with the fingertips, registering the faint topography of the surface. There is real luxury in this restraint, an opulence that announces itself only quietly. Meditative, minimal and quietly sumptuous, the work is never twice the same, shifting with every change of light and angle, offering most to those who give it time and stillness. It is a painting about looking itself — about how much can be felt where almost nothing is shown.

An original oil painting on canvas by August Vance, painted to order — never a reproduction. Large-scale gestural abstraction — sweeping palette-knife strokes, plaster texture and gold-leaf veins in muted, architectural palettes built for grand interiors.

Artist

August Vance

Medium

Oil on canvas

Finish

Unframed, ready to hang or frame

Made

To order, by hand