Abstraction #12 1963

Beauford Delaney made this painting, Abstraction #12, with paint. It's hard to pin down when exactly, because Delaney was all about the now of artmaking. Looking at this painting feels like diving into a pool of coral, that red-orange. The circles, they’re like buoys bobbing on the surface, or maybe the echoes of thoughts. And then there’s the stuff in the background, the yellows and greens, popping out like tiny bursts of light. The paint itself is so alive, you can practically see the brushstrokes dancing. You can almost see where he’s layered it on thick and where he’s let it breathe a little. It reminds me of Joan Mitchell, that same urgency in the way she attacked the canvas, unafraid to let the paint be paint. Art's not about answers, it's about the questions we ask along the way.