The Howl of Terror 1967

Ronnie Landfield made "The Howl of Terror" with layers of flat colour and sharp boundaries that feel both bold and unsettling. I can imagine Landfield working on this, pushing the boundaries of colour and form, like he was wrestling with a beast on the canvas. That central void, that massive block of dark purple, is so insistent! It looms, but then those stripes at the bottom—green, white—offer a kind of horizon line, a point of reference to help push back against the encroaching dark. Landfield's got me thinking about Rothko, too, and the way he used colour to evoke big feelings, like awe and dread. These guys were in conversation, using abstraction to express something fundamental about being alive. It makes you wonder, what is the howl? Is it fear, or is it a release? Painting is an open question.