House: Spatter Painting 1988

Jennifer Bartlett made this painting, "House: Spatter Painting" by, well, spattering paint! It's a grid, all these little universes of color colliding. The surface feels alive, doesn't it? Like a million tiny explosions caught in a moment. Look closely at that one square, the one that's mostly red. It's got this intensity, almost like it's breathing fire. Then compare it to the blues and greens around it, so much cooler. The relationship between them creates this push and pull, a visual rhythm that keeps your eye dancing. Bartlett reminds me of Sol LeWitt, with that interest in systems, but she’s way messier and more emotional! Both were thinking about the way an artwork can be a process, a set of rules played out. And like all good art, it shows us that anything can be a house for your imagination.