Decorah (Single Gemini Series) 1968

Larry Zox made this hard-edged painting by applying blocks of flat, unmodulated color onto a square canvas. I’m thinking about Zox at work in the studio, taping off these sections so they don't bleed into each other, building up the forms one color at a time. It’s a total balancing act; each choice affects all the others. The deep yellow shouts out from the center. It pushes against the dark olive and brown at the top and the zippy green and orange along the sides. A thin white line separates each color block creating a clear border, making sure you know exactly where each one starts and stops. It reminds me a little of some of the stuff Frank Stella was doing back then, you know, playing with shapes and color. It's as if these artists were in conversation with each other, each pushing the boundaries of what painting could be, teaching us new ways of seeing. It's about the pleasure of color, but also, about how a painting is something made, something put together.