Composition 1965

This is Francis Bott's Composition, made in 1965, probably with oil paint. Look at those reds and browns, laid down in chunky strokes. It's like Bott is building something, not just painting it. The texture is key here; the way the paint sits on the surface. It’s not trying to trick you into seeing something real. You can see the hand of the artist, pushing and pulling the paint around. Check out that little patch of bright blue, nestled between the beige and black shapes. It's like a little spark of energy, right? It doesn't quite fit, but it totally makes the painting sing. It reminds me of the way Joan Mitchell would use color, not to describe something, but to create a feeling. Bott’s work, like Mitchell’s, invites us to see painting as an open-ended conversation, a place where meaning is always shifting, always becoming.