Untitled II 1974

John Hoyland's "Untitled II" is like a doorway made of feelings, constructed with layers of color and gesture. The horizontal strokes in the center rectangle have a warmth and immediacy that reminds me of sunshine. Hoyland's process feels so present. The way the colors bleed into each other, the visible brushstrokes, they all speak to the act of painting itself. You can see the push and pull, the decisions made and unmade. That little blob of darker pigment towards the base really grounds the picture, and prevents all the warmth and light from floating away! There's a real kinship here with the work of Helen Frankenthaler, another colorist, but also with late Turner. Like them, Hoyland reminds us that art is about seeing and feeling, not just about representing. "Untitled II" is less a picture of something than a record of an experience, a conversation held in the language of paint.