(Abstract) 

Bui Xuan Phai made this abstract painting using fairly conventional art materials, such as paint and canvas. What’s most compelling about this work, though, is the way that its apparent chaos is in fact highly structured. You can see this in the grid that underlies the whole composition, visible in the white lines that traverse the canvas. But note too how the paint is applied. There is an almost obsessive quality to the way the artist works the surface. Patches of yellow, white, and red, laid down with a restless hand. The impact of this material treatment is to give the work a distinctly handmade quality. It is an oil painting, for sure, but it feels more like craft, like a hand-built textile. So next time you see a painting, don’t just look at the image represented. Think about how the artist’s touch, their gestures and techniques, give the work its deeper meaning.