Untitled 1970

Betty Parsons made this untitled sculpture from painted wood sometime in the last century. It's a playful arrangement. You can almost feel her delight in stacking these chunky geometric forms, each one roughly hewn and slathered with vibrant stripes. Look at the horizontal piece at the base, it’s like a landscape, and the vertical stack rises like some totemic figure. The colors! They feel intuitive, almost childlike. The brushwork is loose, immediate. There's a beautiful honesty in the way the paint reveals the grain of the wood. It feels like seeing someone else's thought process. For me, Parsons' sculpture has echoes of Louise Nevelson’s stacked wood sculptures. Though where Nevelson is dark and brooding, Parsons feels optimistic, joyful even. It's a reminder that art doesn't always have to be serious; sometimes, it can just be about making.