Bonita Helmer: The Theory of Everything
Every painting is a voyage into a sacred harbour. —Orhan Pamuk
When Bonita Helmer talks about her lifelong fascination with outer space, the universe, and quantum physics, it becomes imperative to read the nebulous, prismatic, particulate atmospherics of her paintings as depictions of the cosmos. And indeed, in foundational, discursive ways they absolutely are that. But in the spirit of the exhibition’s title and her own lived experience, the cosmos in question is not just the one out there—it also swirls around the mystical rhizome of our collective consciousness as well. Because they are one and the same. “My starting place comes from an interior longing to make sense of things,” Helmer says, “and radiates outward.”
We are living in a time of seeking, not only for information, but for answers. Whether in research mode or on a mystical journey, our lives are shaped by invisible forces whose effects are felt at every level from the cellular to the spiritual to the futuristic. Every day, we are called to reimagine ourselves and the nature of truth. As the concurrent Getty initiative PST:ART, Art & Science Collide aptly frames, the intertwining realms of head and heart is where all the most interesting things are happening right now. In perfect harmony with this conceptual framework, Helmer invokes Einstein in her exhibition’s title, a titan of knowledge who also wrote that, “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”
In beholding the large-scale, expansively composed vistas of Helmer’s paintings, allowing their wafting, heavy clouds of deep orange, luminous lapis, pulsating crimson, cheeky lime green, and royal purple to waft and whirl before your eyes—interrupted by enough occasional intrusions of geometry, especially triangles, to place a human anchor of thought and presence in, among, and even hinting at containing, the elusive shimmer. It’s always worth pointing out that although Helmer’s paintings look exactly like outer space, what they actually look like are the images science agencies provide—almost always tinted with those rainbow hues just to make studying them easier. “For all we know,” astro-scientists love to tell Helmer, “you may be right about everything.”
Color is typically emotional, rather than informational, and is in fact a science in itself. From philosophers and semioticians like Roland Barthes and Francois Gilot who took on color theory as it pertained to visual culture’s burgeoning modernism, to novelists like Orhan Pamuk who assigned colors their individuation, palette is treated as a language that not only painters speak. It was Gilot who wrote, “When we open our eyes, we look at nature. But in painting, nature springs from the mystery of the palette. Once laid down, one tone suggests a second, and their encounter leads to another and another…” And pure color is Helmer’s starting place as well. Influenced by everything from the latest NASA headlines to her morning meditation, her background colors are an alchemical ground, laid in before she calls upon intentionality to finish that canvas’ story.
Gilot, who was first and foremost a painter, also wrote that, “Color carries feeling, sensitivity, but above all is a direct expression of the sensorial affinity one entertains with life: white anger, purple rage, to see red, be green with envy, have the blues.” In Helmer’s studio lexicon, red is a life force that belongs to the body, while blue is a cooling sensation, more optical; black does not receive anything into itself, so the darkness of Helmer’s empty firmaments are in reality carefully mixed in order to better receive whatever will come after—pigment shaping the spectrum of mystical and celestial hues that blossom like lichen on the billowing masses of her clouds; and also, eventually, the energy field of welcome extended to the viewer. We’re all made of stardust, the sky is far from empty, and the inner expanse remains as uncharted and as in need of exploration as the far reaches of the universe.
—Shana Nys Dambrot
Los Angeles, 2024
Every painting is a voyage into a sacred harbour. —Orhan Pamuk
When Bonita Helmer talks about her lifelong fascination with outer space, the universe, and quantum physics, it becomes imperative to read the nebulous, prismatic, particulate atmospherics of her paintings as depictions of the cosmos. And indeed, in foundational, discursive ways they absolutely are that. But in the spirit of the exhibition’s title and her own lived experience, the cosmos in question is not just the one out there—it also swirls around the mystical rhizome of our collective consciousness as well. Because they are one and the same. “My starting place comes from an interior longing to make sense of things,” Helmer says, “and radiates outward.”
We are living in a time of seeking, not only for information, but for answers. Whether in research mode or on a mystical journey, our lives are shaped by invisible forces whose effects are felt at every level from the cellular to the spiritual to the futuristic. Every day, we are called to reimagine ourselves and the nature of truth. As the concurrent Getty initiative PST:ART, Art & Science Collide aptly frames, the intertwining realms of head and heart is where all the most interesting things are happening right now. In perfect harmony with this conceptual framework, Helmer invokes Einstein in her exhibition’s title, a titan of knowledge who also wrote that, “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”
In beholding the large-scale, expansively composed vistas of Helmer’s paintings, allowing their wafting, heavy clouds of deep orange, luminous lapis, pulsating crimson, cheeky lime green, and royal purple to waft and whirl before your eyes—interrupted by enough occasional intrusions of geometry, especially triangles, to place a human anchor of thought and presence in, among, and even hinting at containing, the elusive shimmer. It’s always worth pointing out that although Helmer’s paintings look exactly like outer space, what they actually look like are the images science agencies provide—almost always tinted with those rainbow hues just to make studying them easier. “For all we know,” astro-scientists love to tell Helmer, “you may be right about everything.”
Color is typically emotional, rather than informational, and is in fact a science in itself. From philosophers and semioticians like Roland Barthes and Francois Gilot who took on color theory as it pertained to visual culture’s burgeoning modernism, to novelists like Orhan Pamuk who assigned colors their individuation, palette is treated as a language that not only painters speak. It was Gilot who wrote, “When we open our eyes, we look at nature. But in painting, nature springs from the mystery of the palette. Once laid down, one tone suggests a second, and their encounter leads to another and another…” And pure color is Helmer’s starting place as well. Influenced by everything from the latest NASA headlines to her morning meditation, her background colors are an alchemical ground, laid in before she calls upon intentionality to finish that canvas’ story.
Gilot, who was first and foremost a painter, also wrote that, “Color carries feeling, sensitivity, but above all is a direct expression of the sensorial affinity one entertains with life: white anger, purple rage, to see red, be green with envy, have the blues.” In Helmer’s studio lexicon, red is a life force that belongs to the body, while blue is a cooling sensation, more optical; black does not receive anything into itself, so the darkness of Helmer’s empty firmaments are in reality carefully mixed in order to better receive whatever will come after—pigment shaping the spectrum of mystical and celestial hues that blossom like lichen on the billowing masses of her clouds; and also, eventually, the energy field of welcome extended to the viewer. We’re all made of stardust, the sky is far from empty, and the inner expanse remains as uncharted and as in need of exploration as the far reaches of the universe.
—Shana Nys Dambrot
Los Angeles, 2024