Tucson 1966

Sven Lukin made this wall-mounted sculpture, ‘Tucson,’ which is hard-edged with bright colors, sometime after 1934. I’m imagining him carefully building up the surface, adding layer upon layer to create those forms. The orange and yellow blocks are cut away to reveal a kind of blue interior, which gives this piece a striking graphic quality. The shapes are simple, almost cartoonish, but they are carefully arranged. It has a strong architectural presence, like a minimalist building facade. What was he thinking when he made this? Maybe about the built environment around him, about architecture and the way shapes interact. It also reminds me a little of some of the pop artists like Tom Wesselmann. I see a relationship between painting and sculpture, between flatness and depth. Artists are always borrowing from each other, aren't they? Seeing what they can take and make their own. It’s like an ongoing conversation across time.