Blu 2000

Carla Accardi made ‘Blu’ without a date, and what strikes me is how the work is so simple. Two tones make up the background – beige up top and grey down below – and the baby blue shapes seem to float across it. I wonder, did she make a bunch of these shapes and then place them on the background? The shapes feel gestural, almost like handwriting. The marks are raw and imperfect, and there’s no shading, just flat color. They remind me of Franz Kline’s black and white paintings where the negative space is just as important as the marks themselves. It makes me think of the Arte Povera movement with the emphasis on humble materials. Even though it’s abstract, there’s something incredibly human about it, like these shapes are having a conversation on the canvas. It’s like Accardi’s inviting us to join in, too.