Couple of Girls 1967

Manuel Neri made *Couple of Girls* using bold strokes of paint. The rawness of the mark-making gives the impression of a sketch, but the colours are pure and applied in blocks, which contradicts this. It's this push and pull that interests me most. The material aspect of the paint is important. You can see the movement of the brush, the direction of the strokes. They're not trying to hide the process, but instead showing you how it was made, or rather the energy of its making. Look at the blue brushstroke at the top. It’s like a quick decision, a burst of energy, a kind of joyful, clumsy mark, which holds the whole composition in place. The American painter Joan Mitchell comes to mind, in the way the paintings manage to be both figurative and abstract at once. Ultimately, Neri's work reminds us that art doesn't have to be perfect or polished. It's about the energy, the process, and the conversation between the artist and the materials.