Untitled 1987

Max Bill made this untitled painting with clean color and form, and it feels so Swiss. It's like design, but it's a painting. I imagine Bill figuring out exactly where each square should go, almost like he's solving a puzzle. What he's made is more than just a formal exercise. It's a real statement. I can imagine him puzzling over it and stepping back to consider it... There's a precision here that I admire. I want my paintings to have a loose, improvisational quality, but there's something so satisfying about a clear, decisive gesture like the hard edges of these squares. I can see how one painting leads to another, and how artists build on each other's ideas over time. It all becomes a big conversation, and this painting is part of that ongoing exchange.