Black usually recedes. Typically it’s what moves away from the main event of the painting. It’s the cast shadow of something that fades into the background or it’s just something else-or nothing-that sets up the “thing” in that’s lighter. To make a black object the subject of a painting is a formidable task for a figurative painter. First of all, the artist has to make what naturally falls away come forward. Secondly, it’s very difficult to realize a black object volumetrically. Most painters rely upon a range from light to dark to model a form. A dark or black object provides no such luxury since the form needs to turn within a very limited range of value. It’s astonishing then that Rubens can paint a black dress that should-by its lack of color-fade into the distance but instead dominates the foreground. Not only that, but he can make that same dress immensely solid and spatial within a very limited range of value. Why do I find that so thrilling? Maybe because I have found it to be so difficult to do. Maybe also because a black or dark object represents so much of what painting is about for me anyway: a statement and a question at the same time, like: “How can this painting be so present as a flat surface and so spatial at the same time? It looks so real! It does look real…doesn’t it?”