Bonnard, de Kooning, Braque, Goya, Monet—these are the artists that Angel Otero often thinks about. While in self-isolation, however, it has mostly been Pierre Bonnard. “For me,” Otero says, “Bonnard’s work symbolizes the formal representation of memory, which has always been at the core of my work. In these new paintings I took Bonnard’s process as inspiration.” The six new paintings are beautifully presented in this online exhibition. The first up, Bathed in Light (2020), a direct response to Bonnard’s Nude in Bathtub (c. 1940-46), is a wonderful way to see Otero’s sensibility writ large. Whereas Bonnard’s tub seems to float within warm pastels that hug and hold, Otero’s tub anchors itself against a whirlwind of plashing color, an aggressive cadmium yellow that is energy incarnate. In these paintings, chairs, ladders, and tables are the only human presence. Memory sits, climbs, and frantically searches the space. —L.J.
