Small painting ll 1964

Edward Avedisian made this Small Painting ll with who-knows-what in his studio, and it's all about how he puts paint to canvas. There’s this sense of play, where shapes and colors bump into each other. It’s like watching someone figure something out, right there on the canvas. The paint has a real presence, you can see the texture where the brush has been dragged across the surface, the little imperfections where maybe the paint pooled or didn't quite cover. Look at that bright yellow background, its almost vibrating. The imperfect circle in blue, it's like he’s tracing something, not quite getting it perfect, and that's the beauty of it, that visible process. It reminds me of a kind of structured chaos you also see in Elizabeth Murray's work. It's this back-and-forth that keeps things interesting, a conversation between the artist, the paint, and us. It’s all up for grabs, and that's what makes it exciting.