Yellows 1969

John Hoyland made this painting, "Yellows," with broad strokes of colour, diving right in. I imagine him, brush loaded, hovering over the canvas, making decisive moves, adjusting and responding to the emerging image. There are these blocks of colour – a muddy green up top and then two squares below: a deep mustard and a lemon yellow, separated by a juicy red line. The paint looks pretty thin, staining the canvas, almost like watercolor. Look at how that red drips down, anchoring those yellow blocks, and how the green above seems to bleed, suggesting rain or mist. It reminds me of Helen Frankenthaler's soak-stain technique, but with a bolder, more graphic edge, a little bit Pop, a little bit Minimalist. You can see Hoyland playing with the legacy of colour field painting, pushing it in new directions, seeing what happens when you let the colours do the talking. It's like he is having a conversation with all the other painters and all the possibilities of colour.