Delta Kappa 1960

Morris Louis made this beauty, *Delta Kappa*, by staining unprimed canvas with thin washes of acrylic paint. Just imagine him tilting and manipulating the canvas, coaxing those rivulets of color downwards, letting gravity do its thing. I'm really moved by the idea of giving up control. It's like Louis was in conversation with the paint, a dance between intention and chance. The way the colors bleed and merge is so sensual. Notice how the strokes on either side mirror each other, but never quite touch? It's a push and pull, a tension that keeps the eye moving. It reminds me of Helen Frankenthaler’s soak-stain paintings—that same desire to break down the barriers between color and surface, to let the painting breathe. And, when I look at this work, I feel like I am witness to an important gesture in an ongoing artistic exchange. Louis makes something new from that exchange, asking us to consider what painting is, and what it can be.