Pascal, State of Grace 1987

In Dorothea Rockburne’s “Pascal, State of Grace,” made with vellum, oil stick, and gold leaf, shapes collide and coalesce, in different colours. Imagine Rockburne in her studio, puzzling over the composition, maybe shifting the vellum pieces around until they lock into place. There's a tension between the matte, almost chalky surface of the blue rectangle and the glossy shimmer of the gold leaf triangle. It’s a push and pull, a visual dialogue, that animates the whole picture plane. That triangle in gold leaf looks like a big cheese slice. I wonder if Rockburne ever thought of geometry and food at the same time. I often do! Rockburne is in conversation with the Minimalists, but she’s doing her own thing, bringing a sensuousness to the geometry that's all her own. It’s like she’s saying, “Yes, I love structure, but I also love the messiness of life, the unexpected, the imperfect.” I feel that!