Testing: Jaq Chartier

by Robin Held

Seattle artist Jaq Chartier creates sensuous abstract paintings that are a compelling mix of art and science, the visceral and the cerebral, and painstaking trials and fugitive pleasures. Her minimalist compositions of blurred ovoids and inky lines chart the interaction of stains and dyes as they leach, bloom, bleed, merge, and mutate. The surfaces, composed of painted stains, milky films, and translucent layers, are visually seductive; they are also archives of the artist's rigorous testing and analyses of her materials.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0974420212
• ISBN13: 9780974420219
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Length: 47 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.4" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Organic and Sublime

I have been fascinated by Ms. Chartier's work from the day I first saw it at Limn in San Francisco. Her techniques are original and the color and forms in her work seem to arrogantly defy their own origins at the hands of a human being. "Testing" beautifully captures the power of the art. Even the finest details of the typography perfectly complement the story of the work and the delightful images. Very well done! Highly recommended! I love this little book.

Testing, by J. Chartier, is a visual feast

At 8 1/2" square, Testing is diminutive in size but powerpacked with images. The book is filled with color plates of Chartier's abstract paintings, rich in lucious color. Details of the paintings allow the viewer to meditate on the quality of the vivid stains Chartier has permitted to bleed and fade, as well as to glimpse a bit of the process while reading her notations incorporated into the painting. An added bonus is stunning photographs of the artist's studio taken by Dirk Park, Chartier's husband. To complete the introduction of this talented new artist, an essay by the Associate Curator to the Henry Art Gallery,UWA and an impressive biography are included. If you are at all interested in abstract art and particularly if you find imagery reminiscent of molecular structures and microbes fascinating, you will not be disappointed with Testing!