Ross Bleckner’s first solo show in 25 years, “Sehnsucht” at Vielmetter Los Angeles, is a haunting meditation on longing and the cerebral process of lamenting. The 15 new pieces (created from 2019 to 2021) are fleeting in nature, chilling and deep. Mostly large in scale, the backgrounds are either black or a dark muted green.

Ross Bleckner
“Hide Inside the Flower,” 2021
Courtesy of the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles
Photo credit: Jeff McLane

The dark black backgrounds of the three paintings from 2021, entitled After 51 Years (I), (II) and (III), offer a stark contrast to the saturated and brightly painted flower imagery in the foreground. Similar to his famous Birds Falling of 1995, the flower imagery on the painted canvas has been blurred by dragging the paint strokes while they were still wet. This distortion of imagery make the flowers seem like they are in motion, immediately bringing forth a contemplation of the ephemeral.

There is a strong correlation in content between Bleckner’s paintings and the Dutch Vanitas paintings of the 16th and 17th century. The flowers in Bleckner’s paintings become metaphorical for the fragility of life—loss is paramount in Bleckner’s work. His skillfully applied strokes of paint are layers opacity and translucency; recognizable imagery becomes abstracted, alluding to the biomorphic shapes and other life systems.

In his large 96” x 72” painting from 2020 entitled Liver/Kidneys/Back/Lungs, white skeletal shapes are embedded with flowers, suggesting death and rebirth. These shapes are interwoven on a black background—black becomes symbolic for the ultimate mystery, darkness and the unknowable. Hide Inside the Flower, is a 60” x 72” monochromatic painting of flowers painted in a dark mossy green. Reminiscent of the moss that would grow on the walls of an abandoned house or on the shore of a stagnant pond, the color itself creates an eerie silence. Like looking upwards whilst being under water, the light source in the painting is diffused and scattered.

The experience of viewing “Sehnsucht” brings about internal spiritual contemplation. It is both a lament and a celebration. Life is precious because it is momentary, and this is what is emphatically felt by looking at Bleckner’s paintings.