L’atelier 1960

Bruno Cassinari made 'L'atelier' with paint, and perhaps a brush or palette knife, it's hard to tell for sure. The scene is dark, but it has these amazing zaps of green and blue. It’s as if Cassinari is trying to construct a way of seeing that doesn't quite settle. Look at the red outline of the figure on the right. See how the colour bleeds? I find these areas so much more alive than if they were contained. There's a real push-and-pull here between chaos and control. It reminds me of de Kooning, with that same sense of searching for something just out of reach. The dark areas of the background, and the thick application of paint feel quite raw. For me, that's where the emotion of the painting lies. It invites us to embrace ambiguity and the multiple possibilities of painting.