Untitled 1969

Ronnie Landfield made this ‘Untitled’ painting with loose strokes of color across the surface, plus drippy lines! I look at this painting, and I wonder what it was like for him to make it. Landfield has a feeling for color, and that’s so much of what painting is. It’s about shifting one color next to another, trying one thing, then another, until the whole thing sort of takes on a life of its own. Here the painting is made up of atmospheric washes with a few graphic interventions, so it's got the loosey-goosey with the structural. The drippy lines pull the eye upwards. Then there's a field of small lines in a rectangular configuration, anchoring the composition, and a single, very fine vertical line to the left. These artists like Landfield were in conversation with each other, sharing and riffing off each other’s ideas. Painting embraces ambiguity, uncertainty, and multiple readings – and that’s what makes it interesting!