Utopia Study #16 1975

Benny Andrews made "Utopia Study #16" using delicate washes of watercolor and fine pen lines. I can imagine the process of painting it: the gradual layering of translucent hues to build form and space. It feels quite dreamlike. I wonder, what did Andrews envision as a utopian existence? These figures with birdlike wings and human faces seem to float between worlds. Is this a spiritual journey, a migration, or a transcendence of earthly limitations? I love the way the yellow ochre connects the island on the horizon, the sun, and the winged figures. The simplicity of form and line recalls the work of Paul Klee, yet Andrews brings a rawness and an immediacy to his art, which gives his works a completely distinctive sensibility. Painting, like any form of art-making, invites us to open ourselves to new ways of seeing and being, and to consider the boundless possibilities of the imagination.