DAVID RUSSICK
For Thee features a thick white outline of a bell with a cross emerging from the top. Its stencillike quality is reminiscent of a child’s illustration as well as a road sign. It could be a church bell, signifying collective religious or individual spiritual feeling. The metallic copper-colored rectangle behind it could be a metaphor for spiritual worth and illumination, since copper is a valuable metal with light-reflective properties. The outer rectangle of green seems to have no specific associations. Its bright, optimistic hue simply pleases the eye. The title suggests that the piece may be dedicated to a loved one, and we wonder if that person is alive or dead. Or Russick’s “thee” may be a sacred reference to the viewer, or to painting itself. Either way, the simplicity of color and form conveys a sincerity refreshingly childlike in its directness.
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It is interesting to see how diluted the impact becomes when more than two or three objects are included in a composition. Just David (Self-Portrait After Malevich) includes images of a ship’s anchor, a measuring cup or pitcher, an American flag on a pole, and a couple of geometric shapes arranged arbitrarily on a flat white background. Because we’re trying so hard to figure out how these elements might be connected, we have little time to allow each one to prospect a meaning from the mine of memory. We are finally reduced to seeing the piece as a pleasant design that seems to have only a superficial formal tie to the work of the Russian constructivist mentioned in the title.
