Untitled 1950

Luchita Hurtado made this untitled piece with what looks like soft pastel, and it’s like a body is emerging, or maybe dissolving, right before our eyes. The texture is amazing – you can almost feel the grain of the paper and the velvety touch of the pastel. Look at how the colors blend, these oranges and yellows and reds mixing with blues and purples. It’s not just about what you see, but about how the colors make you feel. Then there are the black lines, like a strange skeleton or a musical score. There’s one spot where the pastel is really thick and smudged, right at the center of the chest. It’s like Hurtado pressed down hard there, really digging into the surface. It makes me think of someone like Agnes Martin, someone else who knew how to make a whole world with just a few marks. Art isn’t about answers, it’s about questions and possibilities.