"Cool" Series (Dark Pink over Brown) 1963

Perle Fine made "Cool" Series (Dark Pink over Brown) with paint on canvas, and you can really see the layering. It’s like she’s thinking through color, figuring it out as she goes. I love how the brown peeks through the pink rectangle. It’s not a perfect shape, and the colors aren’t flat; there’s this real sense of surface. Up close, you can see the brushstrokes moving in different directions, like the brown was applied with more force than the dark pink, and that makes you think about her hand, how she moved, almost like a dance. That little scumble of brown, visible through the pink, gives it a great feeling. It reminds me a little of Agnes Martin, but with a grungier edge. It's cool to see how artists talk to each other across generations, not by copying but by pushing the conversation forward, even if it's just with a little bit of dark pink.