Anarchic Energy 1939

Conroy Maddox made this painting, Anarchic Energy, with paint on canvas. The shapes really vibrate against that heavy black background. It's got a kind of manic energy, like the painting is a site where thoughts and feelings are being assembled, disassembled and reassembled at lightning speed. Look how the colours are laid down, each block distinct but also kind of bleeding into the next; like the memory of one thing colliding with another. The shapes are almost architectural, with the green below making me think of grass. Each triangle and curved mark seems to be in conversation with the next. I find myself thinking of someone like Francis Picabia or maybe even the later work of Leonora Carrington. The conversation of painting goes on. It’s never fixed, never a single story.