Tension with a Yellow Shape 1947

John Grillo made "Tension with a Yellow Shape" with paint on paper, and it’s really about seeing the process. Grillo’s got this juicy color palette going on, with bold reds and blues playing against that, yeah, tension, from the yellow shape. The materiality here is key. It’s not about hiding the brushstrokes but letting them sing. The paint application is pretty direct, kinda gutsy, not fussed over. Look at that swooping blue that dominates the bottom half. You can almost feel the energy of the brush as he laid it down. That yellow shape up top—it’s like the sun trying to break through the clouds, or maybe it’s a thought trying to surface, you know? Grillo was part of a generation wrestling with abstraction, trying to find meaning in the pure act of painting itself. Reminds me a bit of what de Kooning was up to, trying to pin down something slippery and alive on the canvas. It’s not about answers; it’s about the conversation.