‚Darryl Hughto: Diamonds‘ focuses on a body of work by Hughto that had wide exposure in commercial galleries during the period of their execution but that had not been the subject of a retrospective examination in decades. The methodology of the making of these paintings can truly be said to be intrinsic to the world of waterborne paints. Hughto utilized the options presented by acrylics to their fullest: fulgent soak-stained grounds and thicker declarative paint applications that describe and modulate the diamond shapes. The rationale of figure/ground, historically rooted in portraiture, enjoyed a fresh perspective, an arena of dissolving and reassembling shapes that dispense with the evidence of their making for maximum optical and pictorial effect. The equilibrium of the diamond afloat in its morphing field was enabled by the pliant and improvisatory qualities that waterborne acrylic paints provide. This series of paintings, demanding and immensely satisfying, attend to the notion of structure that can liberate drawing and color for aesthetic effect.
