Couleur Additive. Recherche d’atelier 1964

Carlos Cruz-Diez made this small painting called “Couleur Additive. Recherche d’atelier” – I love that, research of the studio! – with a screen-printing process that lays down thin parallel lines of colour. When I look at this, I think about the decisions Cruz-Diez made with each layer. I wonder if he felt a little like a weaver, carefully interlacing colour to see what happens. The horizontal lines of blue, green and red shift and merge, and as they do, space flickers. The intersections create their own vibrations of light and colour. It reminds me of Josef Albers’ work on colour relationships, but there’s something else here too, something about movement, and a kind of optical effect, which has roots in impressionism. I think about Seurat, and how he put tiny dots of colour together to create a sense of shimmering light. Painting is a conversation, right? We all borrow and steal and remix, hoping to find something new.