E 226 1955

Rupprecht Geiger made "E 226," sometime in his career using paint on canvas, and what strikes me first is the hotness, the way the hues vibrate. The colour palette is so simple – orange, red, yellow, and that cool zap of blue – but the surface texture is really where the action is. The large red form at the top seems to float, doesn't it? Look closely, and you can see how Geiger built up the paint, allowing subtle shifts in tone. It’s not a smooth, flat plane; it’s alive with variation. This makes me think about the physicality of painting. That little blue line down below, it's almost an afterthought, but it centers the piece. Geiger's playing with figure-ground relationships, and that adds to the painting's energy. It reminds me a little of the way Josef Albers played with colour relationships. It’s this ongoing exchange of ideas across time that makes art so endlessly engaging, right?