Mandragora 1969

This is Walter Darby Bannard’s painting, Mandragora, and its creation feels like an experiment in color and texture. The orange and white create a vibrant tension against the muted background. It's like the artist was exploring how colors interact, not just on the canvas, but in our minds. The surface has this layered quality, where you can see the history of the painting. Splatters, drips, and translucent washes build up a skin of texture and color. There's a particular splash of orange near the top right, it shoots off like a firework in slow motion, with tiny droplets that fade into the distance. These marks are immediate and direct. Bannard is thinking through the act of painting itself. Bannard reminds me a little of the process and color explorations of someone like Larry Poons, they're both interested in how much a painting can be about the pure experience of seeing. Ultimately, a piece like this invites us to embrace ambiguity and find our own meanings.