Proposition No.1, Illustration III 1968

Martial Raysse made this cool blue silhouette, Proposition No. 1, Illustration III, and you can tell he didn't just slap the paint on; he coaxed it. Look at the way the color almost seems to breathe. The materiality here is everything. That flat, dense blue is so unapologetic. It’s not trying to trick you into seeing depth, it’s just… there. The surface has these subtle, almost imperceptible lines that run across it – you can imagine the gesture of a squeegee pulling the color across the surface. It’s like a freeze-frame of a process, where the making is right there on the surface. You know, sometimes I think about how Matisse used color, just laying it down like a brick in a wall, and I see something of that here. Color as a thing in itself. Like a big, beautiful question mark. Anyway, I guess what I’m saying is, art is just one big conversation, right? Each artist throwing their voice into the mix.