Untitled 1956

Morris Louis made this painting with acrylic on canvas, without a title, sometime before 1962. Just look at the explosion of marks! It’s pure gesture, isn't it? The colours are bright and bold – yellows, blues, greens – all vying for attention on the surface. It feels intuitive, immediate. Like Louis was in a real hurry. I wonder what was going through his mind? Was he trying to capture a feeling, a fleeting moment? Maybe he was just playing with the sheer physicality of the paint, letting it drip, stain, and pool. That dark, almost black blotch in the middle – it anchors the whole thing, doesn't it? It's like Louis is having a conversation with painters like Helen Frankenthaler or even going back to someone like Kandinsky. There is a dialogue happening, a real exchange of ideas across time. Painting embraces ambiguity, you know? It invites us to bring our own experiences, our own interpretations to the canvas. It's not about finding one definitive meaning, but about being open to the possibilities.