Poetic Formalism and Luc Tuymans

Someone told me my paintings are "poetic." I like that description, so I've been trying to figure out exactly what it means. This is an excerpt from an article by Jordan Kantor in the January 2010 Artforum. Describing Luc Tuymans' Gas Chamber (1986), he states: "In its imagery, the painting is barely legible; however, with the benefit of the title, the pictorial restraint and narrative obscurity become integral aspects of the artist's postulation that historical representation may be more a matter of distance, omission, and translation than of proximity, completeness, or primacy. Indeed, the painting derives as much power from what it withholds as from what it reveals."

While I appreciate Tuyman's work, what appeals to me most about this aritcle is Kantor's phrasing. I'm not ready to attribute the terms "pictoral restraint" and "narrative obscurity" to my own work, but I like those ideas and perhaps my work is moving in that direction. For my upcoming show, I am certainly depending on "the benefit of the title" to help viewers look more deeply at my work.