| Michelle Sakhai was born in l983, the heyday of appropriation, and thus her debut solo show at Broadway Gallery, with her exquisite plein-air canvases, presents a curious conundrum to the ironic eye. How are we to decipher these works in the present artistic climate? Following in the footsteps of the Impressionists and the Fauves, Ms. Sakhai has set up her easel in the fields of Normandie, Aix en Provence, on the beaches of Southern France and at home in Vermont—wherever picturesque views call out to her. |  |
Shock of the Old – E. K. Clark
Michelle Sakhai was born in l983, the heyday of appropriation, and thus her debut solo show at Broadway Gallery, with her exquisite plein-air canvases, presents a curious conundrum to the ironic eye. How are we to decipher these works in the present artistic climate? Following in the footsteps of the Impressionists and the Fauves, Ms. Sakhai has set up her easel in the fields of Normandie, Aix en Provence, on the beaches of Southern France and at home in Vermont—wherever picturesque views call out to her.
In 19th century France, the notion of painting outside—directly from nature—was a radical act. Today, however, some in our trendy art world perceive the notion of plein-air painting as quaint. Fully cognizant of these negative views toward her chosen direction, Michelle Sakhai paints up a storm, nevertheless. According to the artist, even the act of painting is considered suspect, so why worry? She sincerely believes that nature is the best instructor, for her following her muse is richly rewarding. So, she travels the world seeking just the right location.
“Simple Impressions” presents 13 charming canvases full of bravura, lush paint and vivid colors, showing the artist in full command of her craft. Consider Sainte Victoire—a view painted before her by Cezanne and a painting often cited as foreshadower of Cubism—here, the artist conjures up a lyrical, expressionistic landscape. In the foreground, square strokes are applied with a palette knife so that orange, yellow, rose and pale blues followed by vertical slashes of pale green and mustard rise to green/mauve foliage. Then, slashes of burnt sienna verticals are countered by purple and blue brush strokes—Voila!—Mt. St. Victoire. The Impressionists’ methods and their very techniques—stroke by stroke—seem to have seeped into the artist’s soul. In Japanese Pines, a vertical painting, the graceful dance of the swaying pines is indicated with rapid grey-blue strokes, anchored by blocks of red-brown, cerulean and pale yellow. The hazy glow of the background lends the picture an ethereal presence, reminiscent of late Van Gogh.
Ms. Sakhai clearly has a fine grasp of abstraction. In View of Johnson, Vt., the verticals and horizontals create a rhythmical flow and narrative of their own, and quite apart from the specifics of the landscape, itself. A definite standout. The whole series of seascapes, in particular, teeter between figuration and abstraction. For example, A Breath of Normandie, a work both minimal and luscious, describes a turbulent sea with vigorous strokes of acid yellows, pinks, blues and greens. A few verticals indicate a distant flotilla. In the foreground, a mauve stroke suggests a solitary boat; a melancholy sky is scumbled in off-whites. Michelle Sakhai displays a sensuous delight in transforming her perception of light and color into fluid energy, which, at her most successful, translates as content in its own right. More and more, her fluid execution and intense color contrasts recall the expressive wildness of the Fauves rather than the more disciplined approach of the Impressionists, whose intention was to record what they saw and, therefore, considered themselves yet another form of “realist.”
The Course and its companion, The Garden City Course, both pictured in the Broadway Gallery exhibition catalogue, share a reductive propensity and freedom that is characteristic of her more successful work. Large swaths of color take precedence over figurative details. What is observed is conceptualized. One is transfixed by movement of paint on canvas.
Another standout is The Course at Sunset. Here, a startling composition challenges the observer. It’s an unusual view of a golf course looking out to sea. A rolling hill, with two trees growing out of an unexpected depression, faces in the direction of a large golden glow in the distance. The light looks more like an apparition than a sunset. The combination of purples, greens and yellows adds to the wackiness of the scene, making this quirky composition a definite winner.
The changes and developments that occur between her earliest paintings in the exhibition—Coco, from 2005, Sunset in Laguna, from 2007, Water Reflections, from 2007, and Flower Garden, from 2006—are worthy of note.
In Coco, Ms. Sakhai presents a formal garden relying on hard lines and carefully rendered forms. In Sunset in Laguna, the brush strokes are fluid, the paint physical and beach and sky a mere riot of color. Water Reflections depicts a seascape and dock in subtle purple, blues and complimentary yellows, echoing Monet in spirit, if not in execution. In Flower Garden, the artist breaks loose as thousands of vivid marks and textures suffuse the canvas, referencing a summer garden in full bloom. A singular white poplar provides the dynamic vertical.
The genre of plein-air, the vocabulary and techniques supplied by the Impressionists over a hundred years ago, could be, for some, a straightjacket. For Ms. Sakhai, however, this historical model provides an anchor and an inspiration. Where she goes from here, only time will tell. History is not a straight line.
