A good press release for a really good painter: Bill Jensen (at Cheim & Read)

Press releases tend to be poorly written, rarely telling me what I really need to know about a particular show or artist. That said, this new one for Bill Jensen (an amazing painter’s painter) was pretty swell.

Bill Jensen, "LUOHAN (LIGHT STEP)," 2003-2006 Oil on linen

It’s not trying to be scintillating, but it is informative. Excerpt:

Jensen is also inspired by Taoist philosophy, Chinese painting, and ancient and contemporary Chinese poetry. The third and fourth century Taoists believed that pure nature could not be experienced by humans, due to their inevitable mannerization of the natural world. Chinese painters subsequently attempted to depict the phenomena of nature “itself.” This history, linked to the idea that all matter is the same—the understanding that something is everything and everything is something—was of profound influence on Jensen. An intuitive, unpretentious painter, Jensen strives to attain content originating in the psychic and emotional; for him, content is more important than result. Jensen argues that his paintings’ beauty, or lack thereof, is not his decision, but determined by the painting itself.

Devoted to his craft, Jensen makes his own paints with finely ground pigments and a self-developed oil-based medium. This allows him to control viscosity and saturation, and provides a wide spectrum of color and texture in his paintings. His methodology consists of multiple layering, scraping, seeping and “dredging,” and is determined in part by unusual, self-made tools. Jensen’s experimental painting techniques are pivotal to the outcome of his heavily worked canvases. As he has stated, “Solutions come from the working process.”

I read it because I like his work; but I kept reading it because it tackled some difficult territory. Someone at Cheim & Read must have been paying attention. bravo.

The show opens Feb. 18, in Chelsea. Sorry, I don’t have a recent Jensen to show you. But the show looks like it’ll be fine.