Soul Control 1991

This painting by Peter Halley, called Soul Control, hums with hard-edged geometries and a vivid palette. I can almost feel the artist methodically taping off each section, filling it with blocks of color, a kind of urban plan rendered in paint. Look at that assertive red square, it dominates the canvas, casting a shadow, or maybe even a kind of authority over the more muted greens, yellows, and blues that surround it. There is a real push-pull dynamic going on here between the colors, some fighting for attention, others receding into the background. It is a conversation between colors! Halley’s work always reminds me of other painters like Mondrian, but with a decidedly postmodern twist. You get the sense he is thinking about the language of abstraction, but also about how those forms and colors can speak to our contemporary world. It’s like he’s saying, "We're still talking about the same things: space, color, form, but now we're doing it in a world that’s wired and complex, with its own grids and structures.” It's all about how the simple act of painting helps us to see, think, and experience the world.