John Walker layers thick, caked-up colors on top of each other, creating heavily built-up surfaces. The artist has spoken of his work as "a conversation between flatness and depth, between the wall and the window, if you like." In Green Alba-Kingston, as in many of his abstract paintings, the central vertical structure can be seen as a surrogate for the human figure. The title of this painting refers in part to Goya’s portraits of the Duchess of Alba, and the work shows the influences of both Goya and Velázquez.
Gallery label from Against the Grain: Contemporary Art from the Edward R. Broida Collection, May 3–July 10, 2006.