Lemon Peel 1963

Sven Lukin’s “Lemon Peel” is all about a conversation between yellow and white, line and form. I can imagine Lukin, brush in hand, working to carve out that shape, probably refining it over and over. It’s a process of addition and subtraction, push and pull – you know what I mean? The solid band in the middle almost jumps right out at you, like a shelf, and then sinks back into the background. I see a citrus peel, but also the bare bones of a letter, or some kind of hieroglyph that’s so modern. It’s a constant shifting, not just in terms of form, but also the way your eye moves over it. I think about how shapes like this echo across time, and across different artists’ work. Artists like Ellsworth Kelly come to mind; they both shared this interest in making abstraction that feels somehow extracted from everyday life. It’s painting that keeps you guessing, where the questions are more important than any answers.