Magic Carpet Ride 1973

Joyce Kozloff made this ‘Magic Carpet Ride’ painting and I love how the whole image vibrates with these really intriguing, warm, almost acidic colors. It’s all about how the painting is put together; the whole thing feels like a process. Looking closely, you can see how the paint is worked, and you sense the hand of the artist in the making. There's a beautiful passage of these coloured square and rectangle forms at the top of the composition, which have stars painted inside them. They seem to hover between the stripes and blocks in the piece, creating a strong focal point that still allows the eye to wander and get lost in the texture. The painting reminds me of the work of artists like Al Loving, where color, form and surface come together in a really satisfying way, and invite us to think about art as this open field of experimentation and play.