Juno Profaned

Although Jules Olitski painted abstractly for most of his career, he was profoundly influenced by the "Old Master" painters, particularly their use of impasto. He cited Rembrandt, Goya, Hals, Titian, and Veronese as inspirations and wrote that “I was trying to extend Rembrandt’s use of flowing paint, his chiaroscuro, and just as much, his impasto into modern painting.” Olitski studied at the National Academy of Design in New York in the early 1940s and, after the Second World War, spent three years in France on the G.I. Bill studying art. It was there that he saw the work of French artist Jean Dubuffet. He described Dubuffet’s works as “all-over impasto” and was impressed by “the way he made the surface count.” In the late 1950s, after returning to the United States, he produced a series of paintings featuring heavy impasto. In 1959, he abruptly moved in another direction, creating large paintings with little surface texture. These were followed by bodies of work to which pigment was applied through staining and spray guns. Only in 1972 did he once again return to the use of impasto. “Juno Profaned” demonstrates this interest in surface texture. The artist achieved the dynamic surface by applying pigment over heavy gel, which captured the pattern of his brushstrokes.