408/64 1964

Rupprecht Geiger made this square colour field painting, "408/64," most likely with acrylic on canvas. The painting is mostly red. It really *is* red! A hot, saturated red, with an umber line and a thinner orange line down the left-hand side. At the bottom, a horizontal band of yellow that graduates into an orangey red, like the afterburn of a sunset. You can see the process, the layering and blending of colours. Imagine Geiger in his studio, pushing paint around, trying to get it just right... not in a perfectionist way but in an exploratory way. When I see a painting like this, I think of the legacies of Josef Albers and Barnett Newman, artists who also explored the emotional and perceptual effects of color. These artists are all in conversation with each other across time. Each one is exploring the language of colour in their own way. It’s like an ongoing discussion about what paint can do.