Untitled 1972

This untitled painting was made in 1972 by Manabu Mabe, and it looks like he used oil paint. It’s like watching someone think out loud with a brush. Mabe is really pushing paint around here. The surface has this incredible push-pull thing happening. There’s the flat red ground, and then bam, this eruption of textures. Look at the top of the form, this dark mass with tiny circles almost looks like fish scales, and then how it drips and smears down into the white patch! It’s so physical, you can almost feel the motion of his hand. This kind of gesture reminds me of de Kooning, that mid-century anxiety expressed through aggressive mark-making. But unlike de Kooning’s neuroticism, Mabe feels more… celebratory? Like he’s dancing with the chaos.