Untitled (Prescience Series) 1952

Perle Fine conjured up this untitled painting in the Prescience Series with a flurry of brushstrokes and a juicy orange. I can imagine her, in her studio, wrestling with the canvas, trying to get the hues just right, pushing them around until they sit together, just so. Like a big puzzle. The paint looks thin, almost translucent in places, like watercolors fighting to hold their ground. You can see her touch in the way she's dragged the brush across the surface, leaving these ghostlike trails. Did she have a clear plan, or was she just letting the painting grow organically? I feel her, as a painter, always in search of a way to say something new. This piece reminds me of other abstract expressionists who were grappling with similar ideas about form, color, and the sheer act of painting. We are all on a journey, trying to capture something elusive and ineffable. Each stroke, each color choice, a step further into the unknown. Painting is such an open language; its beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.