Time 1952

Here we see Alexander Liberman's painting *Time*, made with simple shapes and a minimal palette. It's hard to pin down when it was made, but I like to think about what "Time" means in relation to abstraction. There's a central yellow circle, a kind of sun, flanked by an arrangement of black dots. The simplicity is so bold. Up close you can see the texture of the paint, how it's been built up in layers, especially in that sunny, yellow sphere. It is not a perfect circle - you can see the trace of the hand, the wobble of the line, which brings a sense of play to this otherwise very formal composition. It makes me think about the paintings of Joan Miró, but with a kind of pop art twist. It has that same interest in simple forms, but with a boldness, a kind of graphic sensibility. "Time" becomes something flat, something playful, something graphic, rather than a deep, existential concept. Ultimately, with its simple shapes, *Time* is a beginning point for endless stories.