Elise Ansel, Crop II, 2023. Oil on linen, 40 x 32 inches.
To consider her work consistently through a bifocal lens—one half focused on her sources, the other on her paintings—is to do her a disservice. True enough, Ansel’s early work occasionally evinced compositional affinities with the paintings she studied, but over time she shed that skin of dependence. Ansel’s work demands to be considered on its own, independent of any pictorial point of departure. Why this is the case reflects a female artist’s relationship to tradition—one to which critics might say she “owes” so much. In fact, Ansel is dependent on no one but herself, and these splendid images owe nothing to anyone, especially to no man. They are exuberant, passionate, and reaffirm the sheer joy of abstract painting.
