Exposed Cinnabar Painting 2006

Callum Innes's "Exposed Cinnabar Painting" seems to be an act of revealing more than concealing, with its translucent colors shifting gently like watercolor. I can imagine Innes in the studio, moving between control and chance. The dark square is so dark it absorbs everything, and then the yellow block sits next to it, all horizontal brushstrokes, like wind blowing through wheat. And underneath, those vertical lines pulling downward, almost like a curtain. When I look at the image, I feel like he’s experimenting with how much he can take away while still leaving something. It reminds me a little of Agnes Martin, maybe, that sense of quiet and reduction. There is a dialogue happening here, across time and space. A back and forth of ideas and processes. It reminds me that painting is an ongoing experiment. You don’t always know where you're going, but the process of finding out is the most important thing.