"Cool" Series No. 15 (The Very End) 1963

Here's Perle Fine playing with simple shapes, rectangles and squares, maybe in the middle of the last century, using these flat, muted hues of blue, grey, and brown. I can imagine her, brush in hand, layering these colors, one over the other, trying to find the right balance, the right tension. It's like she’s building a world, brick by brick, or maybe feeling her way through a fog. The paint looks thin, almost translucent in places, allowing the layers beneath to peek through. What was she thinking as she laid down each stroke? Was she striving for harmony, or was she wrestling with discord? I wonder if she was aware of the push and pull between control and chance, intention and accident, in that moment of painting. Painters are always in conversation with each other, across time and space, riffing on each other's ideas, challenging each other's assumptions. And ultimately, it's about opening up possibilities, inviting new ways of seeing and experiencing the world.