Black Construction 1969

Alexander Bogen made this abstract painting called Black Construction, and it looks like he was feeling the tension between dark and light. The way Bogen applied the paint, not too thick, not too thin, almost scrubbed into the canvas, lets the surface texture peek through. He’s not hiding the making here, more like revealing it. And those colors, the stark black and white, but then that little pop of red. It’s like a jolt, a surprise. There’s one long, thin line of red, bisecting the black mass, and I wonder, is it a road? A wound? This reminds me a little of Franz Kline, another painter who wasn’t afraid of bold gestures and simple palettes. But where Kline felt like pure energy, Bogen has a kind of quiet intensity, a sense of something held back, maybe even a little grief.