Kafka Questions 1984-1986
From 1984-86, I painted a rather large body of work titled Kafka Questions.
I extracted questions from different short stories by Franz Kafka including the following:
Why is it suddenly so quiet?
What if one doesn’t believe in ghosts at all?
Why should a pretty girl like myself go with you ?
Are you really looking for me?
What is likely to happen to him?
I then constructed a narrative of my own around these questions. Each painting within a series, posed the same rhetorical question, but had a different image. When exhibited, all paintings including the same question were shown together. One would be able to explore the unfolding of a narrative—some more linear than others.
Some, though not all, of these paintings used the format of a white boarder, referencing the standard format of early polaroid photos. Inside that white inner frame I wrote the question, either in cursive or using a stencil.
Are you really looking for me? . . .
“Are you really looking for me…?”#6 (diptych), 1985
52 x 120 inches, oil on canvas
catalogue # 85d75
COLLECTION: L’Institut Canadien du Québec
What is likely to happen to him? . . .
What is likely to happen to him?, 1985
94 x 64 inches
catalogue # 85d71
AVAILABLE
The Boy #1 (What is likely to happen to him? – the Beach series), 1986
50 x 78 inches, oil on canvas
PRIVATE COLLECTION
What is likely to happen to him? (the Beach series #7), 1985
72 x 58 inches, oil on canvas
catalogue # 85d130
Why should a pretty girl like me go with you? . . .
Why should a pretty girl like me go with you?, 1986
58 x 72 inches, oil on canvas
catalogue #: 86d38
Why should a pretty girl like me go with you?, 1986
94 x 78 inches, oil on canvas
catalogue #: 86d100
PRIVATE COLLECTION
“Why should a pretty girl like myself go with you?”, 1986
lithograph #2: ed of 50, 1 colour on stained paper, 22 x 30 inches
catalogue # 86g163
COLLECTION: Musée Pierre-Boucher
Study – “Why should a pretty girl like myself go with you?”, 1986
Charcoal on paper
catalogue # 86A25
PRIVATE COLLECTION
Study – “Why should a pretty girl like myself go with you?”, 1986
Charcoal on paper, 22 x 30 inches
catalogue # 86C33
Study – “Why should a pretty girl like myself go with you?”version II, 1986
gouache on paper, 22 x 30 inches
catalogue # 86A51
Study – “Why should a pretty girl like myself go with you?”, 1986
Gouache on paper, 22 x 30 inches
catalogue # 86A26
Are you really looking for me?
“Are you really looking for me…?”#5, 1985
56 x 64 inches / 142.2 x 162.5 cm, oil on canvas
catalogue # 85d74
COLLECTION: Collection Lavalin du Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
Are you really looking for me? #2, 1985
60 x 70 inches, oil on canvas
catalogue # 84d34
AVAILABLE
“Are you really looking for me…?”#7, 1985
oil on canvas
catalogue # 85d76
PRIVATE COLLECTION
Are you really looking for me? (train), 1986
76.2 x 55.88 cm / 30 x 22 inches
lithograph on paper
catalogue # 86g164
PRIVATE COLLECTION
Study: Are you really looking for me? (train)#7 version II, 1984
55.88 x 76.2 cm / 22 x 30 inches
lithograph on paper
catalogue # 84a55
PRIVATE COLLECTION
“Are you really looking for me…?”#4, 1985
64 x 56 inches, oil on canvas
catalogue # 85d73
Are You Really Looking for me? No. 3, 1984
Oil on canvas, 152 x 173 cm
COLLECTION: MNBAQ
So, you don’t think this happens to other people? No. 2, 1985
Oil on canvas, 60 x 68 inches
catalogue # 85d80
PRIVATE COLLECTION
Study: “So you don’t think this happens…” 1985
22 x 30 inches, acrylic on paper
catalogue # 85A25
PRIVATE COLLECTION
Study: “So, you don’t think this happens…?”#3, 1985
52 x 59 inches, charcoal on paper
catalogue # 85c100
So, you think this only happens to other people?, 1985
Oil on canvas, 68 x 60 inches ( 172.72 x 152.4 cm )
catalogue # 85D81
So you don’t think this happens to other people…?
“So, you don’t think this happens…?”#2, 1985
60 x 68 inches, oil on canvas
catalogue # 85d80
PRIVATE COLLECTION
study: “So, you don’t think this happens…?”#2, 1985
68 x 60 inches, charcoal on paper
What if one doesn’t believe in ghosts at all?
What if one doesn’t believe in ghosts at all?
1986
Oil on canvas (varnished), 94 x 78 inches
catalogue # 86d98
COLLECTION: L’Institut Canadien de Québec
Study “What if one doesn’t believe in ghosts at all?”, 1986
charcoal on paper, 77 x 76 inches
catalogue # 86C12
PRIVATE COLLECTION
Study “What if one doesn’t believe in ghosts at all?”, 1986
gouache on paper, 30 x 22 inches
catalogue # 86a14
Why is it suddenly so quiet?
Why is it suddenly so quiet? #II, 1986
gouache, 144.78 x 165.1 cm / 56 x 64 inches
catalogue # 86d97
PRIVATE COLLECTION
Study – The Crab “why is it suddenly so quiet?”, 1986
gouache on paper, 22 x 30 inches (55.88 x 76.2 cm)
catalogue # 86A05