Pintura No. 4 1973

Fernando García Ponce made Pintura No. 4 with bold blocks of black, white, red, and blue paint; it’s all about the process of how the painting came into being, shifting with each brushstroke, and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. I imagine Ponce, staring at the canvas, brush in hand, thinking, "Where do I even begin?" Each color feels like a question, and each shape, a possible answer. Look at how the red paint sits on the canvas – thick, almost sculptural. I wonder if Ponce was in dialogue with artists like Barnett Newman and his exploration of color fields, or maybe even Ellsworth Kelly and his hard-edge abstraction. That strong blue shape calls out to me, doesn't it? I think about the countless decisions, the small adjustments that must have occurred. This piece is an ongoing conversation across time, with Ponce inspiring our creativity, and maybe even you, too. This painting is a question mark.