Violet 1997

Michel Majerus made this painting, Violet, with what looks like acrylic on canvas. The violet rectangle hovers, a dense block of layered brushstrokes against a sea of white. Look at the drips that cascade down the canvas; some are fat and juicy, others thin and wispy, like violet rain. The texture in the rectangle is built up from broad strokes, each one a physical record of the artist’s hand moving across the surface, pushing and pulling the paint. You can almost feel the energy of the gesture, the weight of the arm. The stark contrast between the saturated violet and the emptiness of the white, creates a dynamic tension. It's like a conversation between presence and absence, fullness and void. Something about this pairing reminds me of Helen Frankenthaler, but where she stains the canvas, Majerus builds his color up from energetic marks, embracing the physicality of the paint. It reminds us that paintings are more than just images; they are also objects, surfaces, and sites of action.