PH-104 1952

Clyfford Still made this, PH-104, and for me, the first thing that hits me is how immediate it feels. Look at the surface; it's dry, chalky almost. A big slab of red, straight up the middle, flanked by these ominous blacks. It feels primal, like something scraped onto a cave wall. There’s no messing around here. He's not trying to trick you with fancy techniques, or illusionistic space. It's just, bam, here it is! What gets me is how those colours vibrate against each other. That particular red has an energy, it's not flat; it feels like it has depth and movement. And that ragged edge where the red meets the black on the left – it’s like he attacked the canvas. There is nothing tentative here. Still's work always makes me think of Rothko, but where Rothko is all about atmosphere and transcendence, Still is much more confrontational, more like Guston actually. He’s saying, "Here’s the painting, deal with it." And I kind of love that.