Executed in 2017, Weeping Willow presents an enchanting window into Shara Hughes’ uniquely beguiling landscape vision. Employing the willow trunk and its gentle pendulous branches as ingenious framing devices, the artist sets the painting in subtle graceful motion, prompting the viewer to peer beyond the shifting curtain of dipping leaves into a distant.mes andering vista. The fragmented view, signature of the artist’s landscapes, tilts our orientation into otherworldly horizons, only to snap us back toward the reality of the painting; as Jason Stopa observes, Hughes’ landscapes “reveal the mystifying breach between our own subjective perceptions, our memories of a lived event and reality” (Jason Stopa, “Tripping Out: The Upended Landscapes of Shara Hughes”, Hyperallergic, 5 March 2016). In particular, Hughes’ works are distinguished by their entrancing communion of vision, nature, and psychological depth. The present piece is especially representative of this highly emotive power, with the dramatically downward willow branches being traditionally associated with inwardness and introspection. In the artist’s own words: “I think that nature reflects emotions in so many ways. Beauty, pain, peace, sadness can all be seen in one day with the passing of t.mes or with a weather pattern. Nature is constantly changing, you will never see the same flower twice in the exact same way. The light changes; its growing, or dying, and moving. This is very reflective of humans and psychology” (the artist cited in Emily Steer, “Shara Huges Uses Painting to Reflect the Turbulent Human Mind”, Elephant, 16 March 2020).

Turning from interiors to landscapes in around 2015, Hughes’ fantastical palettes are reminiscent of the vivid Fauvism of Henri Matisse and the rich saturation of David Hockney. Her elaborate structural or decorative framing devices, on the other hand, recall Gustav Klimt’s plein air works; as Stopa writes: “When Klimt went on his plein air painting expeditions, he would often use a telescope or ‘viewing frame’, both tools with the capacity of presenting a detail as a totality. Similarly, [Hughes’ framing forms act] as a pair of binoculars, ones that peer beyond the world of given appearances” (Stopa, Ibid). The resulting depth of field conjures up an unprecedentedly potent connection between interior and exterior vision, and between nature and psychological states. As Prudence Peiffer writes, the “trope of peering through an ocular opening onto the world has solid precedents in the Hudson River School and Romantic painters, who employed cave mouths, bramble edges, and cataracts to encircle central depths of field that suggest states of interior and exterior sublime […] Hughes provided a unique contemporary take” (Prudence Peiffer, “Shara Hughes”, Artforum, April 2016).

Born in 1981 in Atlanta, Georgia, Hughes earned her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and later attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. In 2017, the same year the present work was created, Hughes’ work was featured in a dedicated room in the 2017 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Solo exhibitions include the Newport Art Museum, Newport; Gallery Met at the Metropolitan Opera, New York; and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta. Hughes’ work belongs in prominent collects ions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Rachofsky collects ion, Dallas; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington; and the Whitney Museum of Art, New York. Hughes lives and works in Brooklyn.

作於2017年的《垂柳》如同一扇迷人的窗戶，讓人窺探莎拉‧休斯獨具魅力的風景視角。藝術家以柳幹及垂拂的柔枝為框架，為畫作奠定隱約而優雅的動感；觀者的目光穿透搖曳的葉簾，落在遠處的曲流上。碎片般的景象是藝術家描繪風景的標誌，引得觀者逐漸遁入一片超脫塵世之境，卻驀然被驚醒，返回作品的現實。正如傑森‧斯托帕所述，休斯畫筆下的風景「揭示了我們的主觀感知、記憶中的生活經歷或與現實相悖，神奇玄妙」。（傑森‧斯托帕撰，〈迷幻：莎拉‧休斯顛倒失次的風景〉，載於《 Hyperallergic》，2016年3月5日）。休斯的作品呈現出視點、大自然及心深處三者之間的溝通和交融，令人著迷。本作尤其能夠代表這種情感張力，低垂的柳枝傳統以來與靈性和內省扣連。藝術家曾言：「我認為大自然以許多方式反映情感。隨著時間過去或天氣變化，美麗、痛楚、平靜和悲傷，均可見於一日之間。大自然無一刻不在變化，世上沒有兩朵花姿態完全相同，因為光線會改變，其生長、枯萎、律動亦然，這也反映在人，以及人的心理之中。」（引述自莎拉‧休斯，艾米莉‧斯蒂爾撰，〈莎拉‧休斯以畫呈現人心之騷動〉，載於《Elephant》，2020年3月16日）

休斯原本主要描繪室內空間， 大約在2015年，她的題材轉為風景，其用色風格令人聯想起亨利‧馬蒂斯明亮鮮豔的野獸主義和大衛‧霍克尼飽和濃厚的色彩調配。休斯在結構或裝飾方面的取景技巧別具匠心，使人聯想起古斯塔夫‧克林姆的戶外寫生作品；如斯托帕寫道：「當克林姆考察如何在日光下作畫時，他經常會使用望遠鏡或『觀察框』，兩者都能夠將一處細節化為整體。同樣，（休斯設置的取景框架）彷彿如是一個雙目鏡般，透視世界的表象」（斯托帕，同上）。由此產生的景深緊密聯繫起內部和外部的視點，同時也聯繫起大自然與人的心理狀態，效果之妙前所未見。普魯登斯‧派弗爾寫道：「透視孔洞向外窺探世界之貌，此意念亦非休斯首創，先例可追溯至哈德遜河派和浪漫主義畫家，他們運用洞穴口、刺藤邊或大瀑布圍繞中央景深，呈現內部和外部的渺遠 境界 [……] 休斯從當代角度重新演繹，效果獨一無二」（普魯登斯‧派弗爾撰，〈莎拉‧休斯〉，載於《藝術論壇》，2016年4月）。

休斯在1981年出生於喬治亞州亞特蘭大，於羅德島設計學院取得藝術文學士學位，其後入讀斯科希甘繪畫及雕塑學院。在2017年，亦即本作面世之年，紐約惠特尼美國藝術博物館舉辦的雙年展專設展廳，展出休斯的作品。曾為休斯舉辦個展的機構還包括紐波特美術館、紐約大都會歌劇院畫廊，以及亞特蘭大的喬治亞當代藝術博物館。休斯的作品獲紐約大都會藝術博物館、華盛頓史密森尼美國藝術博物館、達拉斯的 拉喬夫斯基私人收藏館、紐約惠特尼美國藝術博物館等機構收藏。休斯目前居於紐約布魯克林。