Beppe 2010

Stephen Mueller made "Beppe" with paint, and probably a few other tricks up his sleeve. It's a trip, right? The way those soft-edged, rayon colors meet the solid, almost pop-art shapes, makes me think he was trying to have a conversation between different dimensions. I wonder if he was thinking about Hilma af Klint when he made this? She was a pioneer. That one little stroke near the bottom, it’s so simple, but so loaded. You can feel him thinking, trying, and then just letting it be. That’s what abstract painting is all about, isn't it? The thing that I love about painting is that painters are always in conversation, borrowing and riffing. So much of painting is about figuring out what you're thinking, and how to make that thing visible.