PH-104 1952

Clyfford Still made this painting, PH-104, with big gestures using a limited palette of red and black, plus a little green sneaking in at the side. Imagine him standing there, wrestling with these colors. That big red form, a raw, eruptive presence, dominates the canvas. I wonder if he struggled to get that particular shade of red? It’s not quite fire engine, more like dried blood or a sunset refusing to fade. See how it butts up against the black, the black so absolute it almost feels like a void. He's scraping and layering, leaving these ragged edges. It feels like the painting came into being through this constant push and pull, a real dialogue between colors and textures. Still was part of that generation obsessed with the sublime, the overwhelming, and this painting definitely has that quality. It echoes Rothko and Newman, but there's something angrier, more visceral here. A real statement. I can feel that energy still vibrating in it now.