Four Color Frame Painting #5 (Parasol Unit) 1984

Robert Mangold made this “Four Color Frame Painting #5” using a constrained palette and simple forms. It’s kind of like he set himself a problem and then figured out a visually engaging solution. The colors, red, yellow, green, and brown, each occupy a rectangular area, like solid building blocks, framing a large white rectangle. Then there’s this swooping, elliptical line, made with something thin, like a graphite pencil. This dark line unites the composition, but it also teases the eye. You know? It’s a flat painting, but that curve brings in the illusion of depth, like a shadow, or a portal. I love how Mangold makes the act of painting feel almost like a diagram, a study of the basics of form and color. The clarity of his work reminds me of Ellsworth Kelly, but with a more personal, searching kind of line. And that, for me, keeps it open, keeping me looking.