Study II 1981

Brice Marden’s *Study II* is one of those paintings that feels like it came into being through slow, deliberate actions, full of shifting colors and emerging forms. I can almost feel Marden's presence here. Was he thinking about Rothko? Thinking about the tension between colors, how one vibrates against another? The paint has a waxy texture and a cool, muted palette of reds, greens, blues, and yellows. Look at the top layer of ultramarine blue that hovers over the central area of the painting! It comes across as a conscious decision, almost like a correction, and communicates the intentions of the painter. Painters are always in conversation with one another across time, picking up ideas and transforming them. Marden must have considered what Barnett Newman was doing with color, but he's simplified it. It’s like he’s saying, “Let’s get back to basics, back to the simple pleasure of laying down color and seeing what happens.” It embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, and allows for multiple interpretations, over fixed or definitive readings.