Pacific

For more than 50 years of its existence, Alex Colville’s Pacific painting has received more than a dozen interpretations. Given the general mood of the artist’s canvases, art critics and art historians were inclined to give this work extremely gloomy explanations. In the end, a lonely figure accompanied with a pistol suggests a completely understandable idea that this person intends to commit suicide. However, Colville himself did not agree with this version. He said: “I don’t think the picture is about suicide. I suppose I see the gun and the table as integral parts of human life, from which you can simply turn away sometimes.”

Alex Colville made the painting while teaching at the University of California, Santa Cruz. So it really does show the Pacific coast. The artist painted most of his canvases from life. The very process of his work was also very interesting. Before proceeding directly to the painting, Colville made many geometric compositional sketches. Then he started sketching models. And only after that, the artist took up his brushes. Instead of canvases, he mostly used hardboard panels, and diluted acrylic paint, applying many thin layers one after another. Sometimes it took him several months to finish a painting.

Colville’s paintings are very cinematic. It's not surprising that some directors were inspired by his canvases while working on their films: used them in their interior, like Stanley Kubrick in The Shining, or made direct references to them, like Wes Anderson in Moonrise Kingdom. As for the Pacific picture, it served as the basis for a spectacular scene in the famous Heat film by Michael Mann with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino starring. In this scene, De Niro’s character returns home, puts his weapon on the table and freezes at the window, looking at the ocean.

Author: Yevheniia Sidelnikova