Untitled 1959

This untitled canvas by Stanley Boxer is slathered in juicy oranges, yellows, and a few rogue blues. You can almost feel the artist layering these colors, shifting and improvising as he goes. I imagine him wrestling with the surface, each stroke a physical act, a conversation between him and the canvas. There's a push and pull, like he's trying to capture something just out of reach. Maybe a memory, a feeling, or just the pure joy of color. Look at the way that vertical stroke of dark orange pierces through the center. It’s like a heartbeat, a focal point amidst the chaos. Boxer’s work reminds me of other painters like Joan Mitchell. They are all sharing and responding to the same impulse, to make marks that mean something. It's the same old story: paint, color, surface, feeling.