Untitled #71 1974

Ray Parker’s Untitled #71—well, it is an eruption of color painted sometime before 1990! Look at that pink ground—almost vibrating. Then these irregular, almost cartoonish shapes floating on top. I’m trying to imagine him in his studio, adding, subtracting, maybe even wiping away bits to find this arrangement. I mean, painting is like a conversation you’re having with yourself, right? I’m drawn to the yellow line on the right—it’s just hanging out, a bit nonchalant, creating a frame, a boundary. But the way the green form reaches across, almost like a gesture, shows how shapes talk to each other, push each other around, and find some kind of weird harmony. It reminds me of work by other color field painters, Helen Frankenthaler or Kenneth Noland, artists who were also having their own conversations about color and form. It's like Parker is reminding us that paintings are alive, always changing, never really finished.