Blues, Greens 1969

John Hoyland made this print, Blues, Greens, in 1969 and it looks like he was really thinking about how shapes and colors can play together. The way he’s laid down these blocks of blue and green feels so direct, so immediate. I love how Hoyland lets the materials speak. The blue is so dense and covers most of the image, but then you see this thin line of green, sort of squiggling down, and this band of muted sandy color outlining the whole composition. There’s also this surprising strip of red at the bottom of the blue shape which adds an extra zap. I'm wondering if the blue was laid down first and then the other colors were added later on? There's a real sense of risk in the way Hoyland has approached these colors and shapes. Like a conversation between color, form, and feeling, this work reminds me of Helen Frankenthaler's color field paintings, with their own experiments in pushing the boundaries of abstraction. Ultimately, this print really celebrates the joy of looking and discovering something new each time.