Microchromie 71, ZL Fushia 1971

Fernand Leduc’s Microchromie 71, ZL Fushia is like diving into a pool of colour. You can tell he’s aiming for something really simple, but somehow profound. I can imagine Leduc, brush in hand, coaxing this fuchsia into being, layering and adjusting until the colour hums just right. He probably considered surface texture and how the light would interact with it. Is it smooth? Is it rough? How will it live in the room? It is an incredible skill to be able to create a single field of colour and keep it interesting, keep it alive. It makes me think about other painters who dedicated themselves to colour, like Yves Klein or Barnett Newman. They all seem to be asking: how much can colour alone convey? How deep can we go with something that seems so simple? It's an invitation to slow down, to really see. And that’s something special.