1 + 3 x 3 1957

Camille Graeser made this painting, 1 + 3 x 3, with a real sense of how colors and shapes behave together, like they are characters in a play. There’s this lovely quality to the surface where you can see that the colors are opaque and flat against the canvas, yet they really pop, you know? The bright primary colors are divided into bars and rectangles, like someone making a plan for a garden, or a musical score. What really gets me is that little row of three rectangles along the bottom edge: orange, then pink, then green. It's like a tiny, unexpected chorus line, a total change from the more rigid blocks of colour above. This piece reminds me a bit of Mondrian, only if he’d decided to let loose and have some fun. It’s not just about the math; it’s about how those colors vibrate next to each other and how they make you feel. Art is totally a conversation, isn't it?