Eric Dever: Clarity, Passion and Dark Inertia

"Clarity, Passion and Dark Inertia: Paintings by Eric Dever," a 44 page exhibition catalogue including reproductions of 29 paintings and 2 installation views, presented by New York University, Kimmel Galleries.

A decade long process, Dever limited his palette for 4 years to white alone and uncovered a white spectrum ranging from opacity to translucency. He then introduced black, working through grayscales, and in 2010 began testing a variety of prepared red hues and arrived at Napthol Scarlet, discovering a surprising range and quantity of tones, all from red, black, and white alone.

This approach embraces Dever’s interest in color’s shifting correspondence with matter (black), energy (red), and light (white). These color phenomena also echo Dever’s studies of material nature as presented in Samkhya philosophy, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and in the Bhagavad Gita (14.5): Clarity, passion, dark inertia. These are qualities that originate from nature.