Irene Hendrick at Caffe Museo January 21, 2010

Caffe Museo is open daily (except Wednesdays): 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. and open late on Thursdays: until 9:00 p.m. Exhibitions in the Caffe are organized by the SFMOMA Artists Gallery located in Fort Mason Center.

In Irene Hendrick’s painting "Half of what we’ve been through," three boys sift through rubble in the aftermath of the Blitz on London. Hendrick obscures their faces with a glaze of white paint making them seem like a memory, but also opening them up to our own projections: the children in this scene become individuals depending on how the viewer completes their features.

Given Hendrick’s subject matter (war and economic hardship), it is apropos that the viewer plays a part in constructing the image; a more literal rendering might have seemed like reportage.

In addition to allowing her to create what she calls a “vagueness,” her muted palette and use of washes (acrylic paint thinned down to make it transparent) set the scenes firmly in England. Atmospheric creams, yellows, and browns stream down the canvas, momentarily shattering the illusion of pictorial space. In contrast, her use of red is measured and precise, yet seems to signal chance, vulnerability, or danger.

In her pictures, women push prams, pick crops, or have a pint at the pub. Like the characters in songs such as The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” and “Penny Lane,” her people simply go about their business; it is Hendrick’s lyrical style that invites viewers to think about what their lives are like. In Hendrick’s own words these women represent “feminine unity and their mutual protection.”

Growing up in London in the 1950s, she heard stories about the war from her mother, and later she referenced family photos and archive images to help her imagine the working-class experiences of the 1940s portrayed in some of her works. Clearly, Hendrick was affected by the fallout of World War II, but she is most interested in what she describes as, “the close bonds of friends and families in their everyday lives.”

Official Website: http://www.sfmoma.org/artistsgallery