A Gentleman's Wager
Richard Pence
Acrylic on canvas
32 × 18 in
$2,300
Look into the upper half and a man's face looks back: under a splash of red, a long olive stroke sweeps out and curls up at both ends into a waxed handlebar mustache, with a pointed goatee dripping away beneath it. Around him the paint is poured in marbled orange, ochre and olive that has run and cracked into fine branching veins, and long drips carry everything down to the lower edge, where a single dragged stroke of gold crosses beneath.