Horizontals Flanking (Small, Thalo-Green Line) 1968

These two panels by Jo Baer, likely painted with oil or acrylic, offer a study in reduction, of how little you need to make a painting. There’s the off-white, maybe gessoed, center, surrounded by these bands of color. The outer band is this cool, muted black, which frames a thin line of, what is it, a kind of acidic green? It’s almost shocking, how that little stripe changes everything. That thalo-green line is so crucial. It vibrates against the black, and it makes the white space buzz. It's not about what's there, but what isn't. How we perceive the bare minimum. The surface is smooth, the paint thin, almost like a stain. Baer’s playing with edges, boundaries, and the way color can define space. Agnes Martin also had a similar understanding of the emotive possibilities of geometric abstraction and her use of color to evoke specific emotions. This isn't about answers; it's about the questions the painting asks of us.