Uriel 1978

Ronnie Landfield’s ‘Uriel’ is all about these big, beautiful color zones, painted with such a light touch that it almost floats off the canvas. I imagine him, maybe, squinting, trying to get the light just right, each color a little breath of its own. I think about how each shape seems to have been laid down and considered in relation to the others. They lean on each other; they push each other around. There is a dialogue happening here between the orange and blue, between the purple and the pink, between one painting and another. I see hints of what Helen Frankenthaler was doing with stain painting, where the color soaks right into the canvas. I think these painters, like Landfield, are all in conversation with one another, they’re not necessarily trying to do the same thing, but they’re all pushing on the same questions: what can color do? How can painting be more than just a picture?