Intimacies

Peter Charlap

V. S. Naipaul wrote, “If a writer knows everything that’s going to happen, then his book is dead before he begins it.”

Charlap’s approach to painting has evolved over the last few years. Whereas previously the process seemed like a contest between the painter and the painting, Charlap’s practice now is not unlike a seance in which he is open to the inputs offered by the painting, coaxing the image from the painting, trying to recognize cues and prompts that appear in the work as it unfolds.

Charlap embarks on a new painting often with only a rudimentary sketch or notion, without a specific goal or image in mind, to the point that late one night, while working on a painting, Charlap involuntarily has said out loud, “where are you taking us?” Over time Charlap has become more comfortable with this way of working and it has led to imagery and visual vocabulary that he probably wouldn’t have encountered otherwise.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is cited as having said, “dogs look at dogs and people look at people”. Charlap is interested in the human figure. In his paintings he is intrigued by what happens when two figures appear on a rectangle, close to the picture plane, potentially fostering a kind of intimacy between the viewer and the painting.