Untitled 1986

Olivier Mosset made this "Untitled" painting, and what grabs me first is its process, a back and forth between applying and removing paint to achieve this perfectly flat surface. Up close, you'll notice this pink is dense, opaque, almost like a wall that's been painted and repainted. And then, smack in the center, a blue circle. It's so simple, right? But that's deceptive, because there's a kind of tension in the way that simple blue form sits within the field of pink. What does it mean? Is it a void or some kind of portal? Mosset, in his wider practice, aligns himself with artists like Barnett Newman, who also looked to reduce painting to its most essential elements, thinking about the nature of color and form. But where Newman might aim for the sublime, I think Mosset embraces a cooler sensibility, something more playful and open-ended. Like, what else can be done with painting? It's a question, not an answer.