Mizar 1985

Rene Duvillier made this painting, Mizar, with washes of color and bold gestural marks. What strikes me is how the artmaking process feels so present. You can see the movement of the hand. The material aspects of the work really shape our experience. See how the thin washes of orange and red bleed into each other, creating these unexpected textures? And then there's the blue, laid on with a decisive, almost calligraphic stroke. It's as if Duvillier is conducting an experiment, letting the materials interact and seeing what happens. Notice how, in the upper right, the black bleeds into the orange, creating these blurred forms that become quite suggestive. There's something about this embrace of chance and fluidity that reminds me of Helen Frankenthaler. But Duvillier's dark palette gives it a somber, mysterious feel, a reminder that art is as much about asking questions as it is about providing answers.