Sara Genn

Lives and works in New York, NY

Artist statement

After our mother tongue, color is perhaps, our second language. Unlike words, though, color enters only through the eyes and is therefore subject to our perception by way of temporal conditions like light, atmosphere, distance, the materiality of the object, and perhaps most importantly, what is next to it. These conditions create distortions that are individual to each of us, yet we share in our experience of them and develop visceral and cerebral preferences and prejudices. Color’s proximity to other colors especially obfuscates what we call, in painting “local color” -- the color of an object without the effects of light and shadow, the casts of other objects, or what our eyes do when colors are grouped. When painting the landscape outdoors, for example, local color is practically non-existent. Painters en plein air practice long looking -- so they might identify the colors in nature they’re actually observing, as opposed to what their brains have already told them they’re seeing. In other words, snow is never white. In music, “counterpoint” is the relationship between two or more musical lines which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. Its use is especially masterful in the compositions of J.S. Bach, but the device is prevalent in many genres. Counterpoint is different from harmony in that it doesn’t ride the same line in order to make one harmonically sound melody, but rather weaves in and out of a dialogue, providing tension...

Artwork