Convenient Truths

Convenient Truths, 2022
Oil on canvas
Work: 160 x 145 cm

Convenient Truths is amongst some of the more abstracted paintings within Masamvu’s oeuvre but there are certainly other paintings that have been executed in a similar style and vein. What is most fascinating about these more abstracted works is how Masamvu has utilised space and line within the canvas. Using these aspects and qualities in an abstracted mode, much like Willem De Kooning and other expressionist painters, Masamvu creates and forms an imagined environment that is not associated with any particular geography. Rather, the paintings should perhaps be understood by the mental and psychological landscape – pointing to an alternative reality where each layer of paint, or brushstroke on the canvas, proposes a search to resolve conflicted experiences or decisions.