The motif
Heavy, it lies there on broken ground. An abandoned crown, gleaming as on the first day – its king long gone.
Cadmium yellow gleams on the band and points; patches of brilliant blue and quinacridone magenta lie on it like the traces of many hands. From the points and the rim the paint runs in long streaks across the ground – yellow, blue and magenta, as if power itself were slowly seeping away. All around, the world stays monochrome: grey, cracked ground, deep black night, a long shadow. The colour names come from the pigments with which David paints his originals.
