Untitled 1990

This untitled work was made by Jacob Kainen, and it looks like he used pastels on paper. I love how the pastel strokes hover on the page, suspended in a way. I imagine Kainen moving around the paper, marks accumulating, shifting from one colour to the next. See how the colours vibrate together – the pinks, the greens, the yellows? There's a dominant orange shape, kind of hovering in the middle, like a sun, or a memory. It makes me think about all the other paintings I've seen, all the other artists who have stood in front of a blank surface, trying to make something out of nothing. Each mark is a decision, a feeling, a thought made visible. It’s like a conversation, a call and response between the artist and the painting. And now, between the painting and us.