| Client Description: |
The number paintings are powerful, ambitious large-scale works. Again the artist utilizes fragments and pieces of the whole as a visual tool. Only sections of the numbers are visible. These pieces of numbers represent the unfulfilled lives of the victims that perished. The raw intensity and scale of the works elicit strong emotions in the viewer. This body of work contains over 30 paintings, some as large as eight feet by ten feet. The paintings are white with black numbers. Once more Polenberg focuses on creating a dense, multi-layered surface where the numbers appear rough along the edges. We see for the first time in his paintings the extensive use of long drips of paint, some in red, which intensifies the feeling of deep longing and terrifying sadness. Viewers are drawn in by the beauty of these paintings but at the same time are haunted by a feeling of despair. |
