Fluid Red 1968

This is Kazuo Shiraga’s painting, Fluid Red and it's an experience, I tell you. I'm imagining the act of painting it—the artist, splattering, shifting, and improvising with reds, whites, blacks, and yellows. Shiraga was part of the Gutai group in Japan, who were really interested in action and performance. This painting feels like such a record of an event. It’s like, what must it have been like to make this? Look at the way the paint drips and pools, thick in some places, thin in others. Notice how these elements shape your experience of the painting. The gesture of the swirls communicates feeling, intention, meaning. You can see the artist’s process; it is so embodied, physical, and present. Artists are in an ongoing conversation, right? Shiraga would have been aware of Pollock and action painting, but doing something really different. I think artists make paintings as a way of thinking. They embrace ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing multiple interpretations and meanings. I hope it makes you want to go and make something yourself!