Chatumec #2 1970

Walter Darby Bannard made "Chatumec #2", a painting of indistinct date, during an era when American abstract art was dominated by the machismo of Abstract Expressionism and the cool detachment of Minimalism. Bannard sought to chart a different course in his work. He poured diluted paint onto unprimed canvases, letting the colors mix and bleed in unpredictable ways. The resulting compositions, like the ambiguous shapes and soft hues of "Chatumec #2", have a fluidity and openness that stands in stark contrast to the rigid geometries and hard edges of much of the art of its time. Bannard’s process, like that of many mid-century artists, sought to emphasize the materiality of paint itself. As he put it, his paintings were simply “dyed canvas,” yet he evokes a sense of light and space. The composition, in some ways, recalls the color field paintings of Helen Frankenthaler, eschewing traditional brushwork for a more intuitive, process-based approach. It’s an approach that softens the boundaries between control and chance, revealing a visual language all its own.