Untitled 1978

Amilcar de Castro made this painting with a brush and a very limited palette – just black, white, red, blue, and yellow. You can see the mark of the brush in the black lines that weave around the canvas. It makes me think about the act of painting itself, how each stroke is a decision, a shift, a little error, and an intuition all wrapped up together. I imagine de Castro thinking about constructivism and maybe even Mondrian when he was making this! The paint isn't too thick here, but you can still feel the texture, especially in those dark lines. It gives the painting this raw, immediate feeling, like he just laid it down and walked away. That one little red rectangle, it feels so crucial. And then the blue and yellow holding their own nearby. It’s all a big conversation, painters talking to each other across time. It feels good to know we're all in this messy, uncertain, beautiful process together.