Corridor 1960

Karl Benjamin made this painting, Corridor, with, what I’m guessing, is oil paint, and a real sense of playful exploration! The texture is so smooth, so flat, that you don't see any brushstrokes; the hand of the artist disappears. Yet, somehow, it’s still really dynamic. I see that red bar on the left, sitting alongside the lime green shapes, and those blues and greens in the ‘corridor’ in the center, it's all so carefully balanced. It feels like looking into some weird, impossible room. For me, it’s a little like a Barnett Newman, but with a sunny disposition; as if Ellsworth Kelly had decided to design a playground! It reminds me that art is always this conversation between people, and what they are all thinking. It's never really finished, it just keeps going, you know?