I have no idea why the artist called this piece “A May Day” — to me, the name “An Autumn Day ” seems much more appropriate. Perhaps this is an irony of a sort, a weather sarcasm, if you will. I may be choosing the wrong path discussing this painting as if it were depicting autumn, but I just don’t see any other. I would be very interested in your opinions on this matter. Anyway, autumn looms schematically large: the leaves, when loosing their color, usually form random, particolored patterns — but here the hues are accurately distributed between three areas, gray, purple and yellow; as a result the color diversity is reproduced on the macro level of the whole forest. The colors need to be mixed in the viewer’s mind in order to elicit the mentioned seasonal association. Though the process is probably instant, it is still perceptible, like a flash, akin to those of inspiration.
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No more sluggish grace: Ezekiel exhibits a poignancy of movement that proclaims a strong spiritual direction. His posture differs significantly from that of the sibyls, as he sits firmly on his throne, with both feet fixed on the ground. The prophet’s feet are shown without the embellishments we witness in his female counterparts; sturdy, simple members, they were meant for walking, and they reveal the day-to-day routine of the biblical prophet as physically demanding and even grueling. At last we see a gaze that is prepared to confront an opposition; there is generally something violent in the way Ezekiel looks to his right. In fact, all of his frame appears rather intimidating. The red of his main apparel further stresses the aggressiveness and the contained energy, ready to spill out in the form of words, as his pouting lips show, or blows, as his callous right palm unequivocally implies.
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Quite a complex composition unfolds before the viewer. Two of the most prominent elements from the artist’s arsenal spread on the panel: the barns and the trees; they interact dynamically, both in color and placement. I think that this piece can be divided into two acts, the first, the main one, happening in the foreground — it offers some friction and contrast, and the second, the low-key act that takes place in the background, and which absorbs at least some of the electricity generated in the front. To my mind, in the context of Tracy’s artwork as a whole, this painting conciliates two contradicting concepts (and that makes it more compelling). On the one hand, its composition is notably uncharacteristically crowded but, on the other hand, it speaks most eloquently about the characteristics of the artist’s style. To a critic, such a piece always presents a find and a must examine item.
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The Libyan Sibyl also turns away from the book she holds, in what seems like a characteristic display of learned ignorance: having the knowledge, but being unable to use it in the right direction — that of the Christian creed. By reiterating the gesture, though in a different form, Michelangelo forwards a broad allegory on paganism. He exposes two sides of pagan spiritualism; on the one hand it deserves credit for the wisdom it developed and cultivated but, on the other, it can only be considered as an intermediate stage on the way to a loftier religious truth. To my mind the symbolism is quite obvious, and though interesting, it is the actual pictorial elements that make this figure fascinating. Once again, the artist reaches the highest levels of complexity and sophistication by introducing a series of rhythms, repetitions and movements.
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A colorful piece, this painting can be viewed from afar and perceived as a magical asymmetrical flower, each color area representing a petal. That way it can appear as close as it gets to abstract art without actually containing any obvious abstract elements. But asymmetry plays a principal role without the involvement of a different stylistic interpretation: the composition, though heavily careening, can be naturally divided into two halves, the left and the right, both of which would include similar but uneven geometrical forms. However, they become commensurable in terms of palette. The right half would include all of the purple trees, with a thin stripe of yellow, blue and the gray-blue of the sky, while the left half would display a more even distribution of all the other colors except the purple. The hot orange grove compensates for its smaller size by its bright hue, and finds an analogous cooler counterpart in the purple forest. The blue of the driveway mediates between the two, as both contain traces of that color. The multiplicity and versatility of colors on the left find a stabilizing counterpart in the form of the single purple block on the right. Thus, geometrical asymmetry can be softened by palette correlation.
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