Untitled 1965

Paul Feeley made this untitled painting with simple yet striking shapes and colors. There’s a playful symmetry at work. I like the way the alternating blobs of red and blue create a dancing rhythm across the circular canvas. It's as if they’re doing a little jig, a visual rhyme that’s both balanced and buoyant. The painting has a clean, almost graphic quality, but you can also feel the hand of the artist in those imperfect edges, where the colors meet. Imagine Feeley, carefully laying down each shape, one after another, creating this hypnotic composition. It's easy to see how an artist like Kenneth Noland was influenced by Feeley's sense of color and form. Ultimately, painting is an ongoing conversation, a game of telephone across generations. Artists are always looking, borrowing, and riffing off each other.