Laissée 1995

This painting by Simon Hantai involves a process of folding, crumpling, painting, and unfolding to create fields of color that feel, well, left behind. I imagine Hantai, alone in the studio with this huge piece of paper, carefully deciding which parts to expose, how to crimp it, and how much pressure to apply. Like folding laundry, but instead of putting things away, Hantai is trying to conjure and discover something new. That royal, saturated purple has a real presence here! It pulls you into the folds and then lets you go in the unpainted parts. It reminds me of Helen Frankenthaler, but also maybe the ways that early computer graphics tried to create three-dimensional forms with simple lines. Painting is always in conversation with its moment, as well as with other painters. It's about intuition, but also a deep knowledge of what painting can do.