Alcamosparadiso 1991

Stanley Boxer made Alcamosparadiso with paint, and a whole lotta feeling. I see a commitment to art-making as a process, with colours and marks added, taken away, then added again, until the final image emerges. Up close, you can see the paint is applied in thin layers, with glazes and washes creating depth and luminosity. There are tiny dots, like stars in a night sky, and bigger daubs of colour, like clouds in the daytime. Look at the lower-left corner, the teal green. It's like a pool of water, reflecting the colours around it, shimmering and alive. It brings to mind the later works of Helen Frankenthaler, who was also unafraid to let the paint flow and mingle on the canvas. Like Frankenthaler, Boxer embraces ambiguity, inviting us to lose ourselves in the colours and textures of the painting, to find our own meaning in the abstract forms.