Alphabet Plastique II 1950

Auguste Herbin made Alphabet Plastique II at some point, using what looks like flat, almost mechanically applied color. The shapes are hard-edged and give off an aura of precision, but I like to think of this as a stage, or a set, on which something could happen. There's a theatrical feeling to the way the flat planes of primary hues sit together. The texture of the paint isn't immediately obvious; it's as if the colors have been scrubbed into the surface of the canvas, leaving us with a feeling of transparency, or even a lightness of touch. Look at the way the black curves dance around the left side. There is something very playful about the way the shapes stack and interlock, almost like a child's building blocks. In the same way that Leger reconfigured Cubism with a Pop sensibility, Herbin points the way to a later generation of reductive colorists, like Ellsworth Kelly, who found new potential in the legacy of abstraction. Isn't it funny how art is just a big game of telephone?