Landscape (Mid-day) 1953

Morris Louis laid down this “Landscape (Mid-day)” in washes of acrylic on canvas, maybe searching for something, you know? He's got these bold strokes of blue, black, yellow and grey, kind of fighting it out on the surface. I can almost see him, paintbrush in hand, maybe a bit frustrated, as he pushes the paint around. Did he start with the yellow? It’s hard to tell. There’s a tension between the dark, solid shapes and the more fluid areas. The paint is thin, almost like a stain, which gives it this ethereal quality, like a memory of a landscape rather than a picture of one. I'm reminded of Helen Frankenthaler or maybe even some of the slightly later work by Joan Mitchell. It's like he’s having a conversation with the canvas, and through that, with all of us. That's what painting is, right? It’s not about answers, but about the ongoing questions.