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Allison Katz AKgraph (Abbondanza) , 2024 Oil on linen, 67 × 67 in. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth Tanoto Family Collection
As this painting’s title suggests, it depicts a view of Via dell’Abbondanza, Pompeii’s most important thoroughfare. From the surface of the cooled lava flagstones emerges an apparition of the artist’s face, with features created by her initials (MASK, Ms. Allison Sarah Katz). Katz’s figurative and literal use of the mask introduces themes of theatricality and persona, framing and concealing. The spiraling blue tag heralds the street as a site for graffiti—painted expression in its most unchecked form—traces of which still color Pompeii’s ruined walls. —HJ
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