Untitled 1953

This untitled painting was made by Guido Molinari, though we don’t know when or with what. Just look at that surface—I’m imagining Guido pushing paint around with a palette knife, each smear an intuitive gesture. The colours are bright and bold: reds, greens, yellows, oranges, with dashes of black and white to add contrast and depth. I feel like Guido might have been thinking about pure energy when he made this. The texture is so thick, almost sculptural, inviting you to reach out and touch it. The little flicks of paint seem so loaded. Those big slabs of colour made me think of other painters like Joan Mitchell, and even Guston towards the end of his life. They remind me of the way we artists are always looking at each other's work, picking up ideas, riffing on themes. Each painting is a kind of question posed to the world, and each response, like this one, helps keep painting alive.