Rashid Johnson

Acquired from the artist's studio.

Rashid Johnson’s Bruise Painting “Nina’s Blues” (2023) is a part of the artist’s Bruise Paintings series. Begun in 2021, this series is a transition from Johnson’s series of red works, The Anxious Red paintings. All made in 2020, in this series, there is a sense of urgency, anxiety, and even dread. The artist’s scrawled marks form what can be interpreted as crowds of anxious abstract faces. The Bruise Paintings, on the other hand, have a sense of calm sadness. Johnson’s marks have a lyrical feel. The paintings are composed of mostly one blue, “Black&Blue,” a hue of Johnson’s creation in collaboration with R&F paints. Johnson layers and stretches the paint across the canvas, allowing one color to seem like many. Crowds of abstract faces fill these canvases, but instead of anxiety, there is a feeling of melancholy. “Bruise” suggests a liminal space where healing has begun, but the remnants of trauma are still evident.