Hoo-Rae!

I was just thinking about Fiona Rae's paintings a few days ago, and as I live and breathe the Hirshhorn puts one out as part of their collection highlights! 

I first learned about her from the Sensation catalogue. She was the only one that was a sensational painter, and not a sensational sensationalist. She precedes that whole "double stuffed", floaty layer abstraction, as far as I can tell. The paintings consist of marks of various sorts and chopping up the rectangle in interesting ways. I like the way it is about painter tools: types of marks, flatness, illusionistic space, color... Similarly to the near hanging and always loved Cecily Brown post-porn painting Hoodlum. 

Fiona Rae's paintings are waaayyy more graphic now, a little more designer-like with "contemporary" painting tropes ( i.e. drips, marks and splashes over half finished Florentine and Warner Bros. design elements) Meh.