Composition 1983

Stig Brøgger made this painting called ‘Composition’ using what looks like acrylic or maybe oil paint. There’s a pink slash at the top left, like a squeezed-out worm, and a dark green geometric form, a kind of L shape, only broken. The background is an even, light olive green. I love the simplicity of this painting, it seems totally uncomplicated. But that pink mark is what gets me. It’s so gestural and juicy, a real contrast to the flat, almost industrial feel of the rest of the painting. It reminds me of a Cy Twombly scribble, but with a kind of Scandinavian reserve. The way Brøgger balances these elements, the organic and the geometric, the messy and the clean, it’s like a little visual poem about the push and pull of making art. It’s a reminder that art doesn’t have to shout to be heard. Sometimes, it’s the quietest voices that speak the loudest.