Transection No. 15, 1972

Description:

Transection is a theological term meaning to cross, and specifically to cross between life and death. Carter's Transections are composed of ovoids/eggs that rise from precisely rendered spaces and recall the artist's own childhood behavior, as he stated in a letter to a colleague, "There is a strange correlation between my childhood and what I am painting today. As a child I would spend days digging deep holes being careful to square up the holes and smooth down the sides. Then I would sit down in these holes I had so carefully dug and contemplate the mystery of this cubicle shutting me off from the visible world. It was such a satisfying state to be enveloped in the rich brown earth...and look up at the blue rectangle of sky and try to relate these two elements, the confinement of the earth with the spaciousness of the universe outside the hole I had dug for myself." With the Transections there is a sense that while Carter has always been curious about death, he is perhaps more intently contemplating his own mortality, and has found yet another way to visually express these inner thoughts. Carter had long admired the work of Piero della Francesca and Piero's Resurrection of 1463 was part of the inspiration for these works.