Railroad Gate 1989

Ronnie Landfield’s "Railroad Gate" seems to have emerged from a kind of back-and-forth between control and chance, especially with that expressive color field happening in the middle. I feel like Landfield is in dialogue with a bunch of painters here – those wild strokes of black on the left kinda remind me of Franz Kline, while the dreamy landscape in the center seems like a nod to the Color Field painters. I can imagine him layering those juicy colors, letting them bleed into each other, almost like he's chasing after a memory or a feeling more than a picture. That bright orange rectangle at the bottom, with its own grid, feels like it’s holding everything in place, giving structure to the more free-flowing gestures above. It’s almost as if he's saying painting is about setting up some rules, but then knowing when to break them and let the unexpected happen. What a move!