Kay's Travel 1959

Friedel Dzubas made Kay's Travel, which is a lyrical abstract painting with large, expressive marks in a muted palette. The whole thing feels very process-oriented; like Dzubas was really thinking through making this piece, stroke by stroke. I love how the physicality of the paint is so present. You can see where he’s thinned it out to create washes, and then layered on thicker, more opaque strokes. There's this dance between transparency and opacity that creates a real sense of depth. I keep coming back to this one spot, near the middle, where a blob of white paint seems to sit on top of everything else, like a little cloud. It’s so simple, but it brings the whole painting into focus. Dzubas always reminds me a bit of Helen Frankenthaler, both in their use of color and their interest in staining the canvas. But where Frankenthaler's work feels a bit more serene, Dzubas has this raw, almost awkward energy that I find really compelling. It’s like he’s embracing the messiness of painting, and letting the process itself guide the way.