Countryside

Esteban Vicente's paintings from the 1980s and 1990s show the reappearance of more varied shapes, a brighter palette, and more visible brushwork. There are hints of figurative elements in some of this work. Countryside, for example, suggests a landscape and, indeed, this painting from 1999, two years before his death, is a view from the back door of Vicente's Bridgehampton farm house to the garden and studio beyond. The green suggests trees or foliage, the salmon-pink above could be a ravishing sky, the lighter green in the top center a cloud. The simple horizontal and diagonal lines suggest architecture and offer a contrast with the other elements of the canvas.