ANDREW YOUNG
Living in Siena, Italy, in 1983, Young saw pictures that would shape the direction of his artwork for years. The Italian masters helped their patrons worship God (and, not incidentally, helped them impress their neighbors) by adorning linen-covered panels with depictions of holy persons. Using a mixture of egg yolk and pigment, these artists made precisely balanced pictures in glowing colors that, at their best, seduced their viewers with the illusion that they were looking at something divine.
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The blocklike solidity of the mountings is a comforting reminder that these pictures are actual things. That physical security is lost when Young turns his hand to watercolor on paper. With such a fragile support, his art almost dissolves into the wall. These equally measured but more breathy renderings of flowers and geometries are thus most effective when they echo the strong architecture of his paintings.
