Untitled 1989

Peter Joseph made this ‘Untitled’ painting, probably with acrylic on canvas, where a pale blue rectangle floats against a kind of dusky rose ground. I imagine Peter starting with the rose colour, maybe even multiple layers of it, and then coming in with the pale blue, deciding on the size and location through a process of just looking and feeling. Like, what’s the right amount of tension and balance? Is the blue too big, too small, too high, too low? There’s something about the simplicity that reminds me of Agnes Martin, but without the grid. It’s like he's trying to get at something elemental, maybe the feeling of a colour, or the relationship between two colours, like a visual haiku. There is an incredible calmness and openness in the painting. It’s a reminder that painting at its best is about slowing down and creating space for contemplation. The colours create a quiet vibration, an invitation for us to think, to see, and to feel.