Untitled 1960

This untitled painting was made by Clyfford Still, and looking at it, you can just tell that the process was everything. The paint’s applied in these vertical bands, but it's not flat or uniform. See how the color shifts within each section, from the dark blacks to the creams, ochres and reds? It’s almost like he’s scraping the paint down the canvas, letting the texture of the material become part of the image. Take a look at the top edge of that black band on the right. It's jagged, almost torn, like the Grand Canyon. And that little fleck of red peeking out from behind? It’s like a hidden secret, a tiny spark of energy that ignites the whole painting. Still reminds me of a pared down Rothko. He also embraced abstraction as a way to express raw emotion, making art an open field for interpretation.