The Duke 1990

This untitled painting – let's call it "The Duke" – was made by Willem de Looper using paint on canvas. De Looper’s art-making feels like a balancing act. Here, the textures are really doing it for me: the grey impasto is built up in chunky planes, like trowelled plaster, and then there's the deep black and orange shapes sitting on top, contrasting with the grey like smooth, considered thoughts. De Looper plays with opacity and covering, revealing and concealing, so you can see the painting's history in its surface. Look at the meeting point of the black and grey, the traces left by his hand in the dragging of the paint, and how he seems to be trying to find a perfect edge, with that black plane looming over the rest of the composition. I am reminded of the paintings of Mary Heilmann, who similarly treats the canvas as a site for improvisation, finding the edge of chaos. Art is a conversation, after all, and these paintings invite us to pull up a chair and participate.