J'ai dit noir puis rouge puis noir encore 1975

Huguette Arthur Bertrand made this painting called 'J'ai dit noir puis rouge puis noir encore', which translates as 'I said black then red then black again', with big, bold marks, in a limited palette. It feels like she’s working something out through process. There's such immediacy in the brushwork; you can practically feel the energy of her arm as she swept those strokes across the canvas. Notice how the black paint is laid down in these thick, confident gestures, almost like calligraphy, and then punctuated by that intense burst of red. There’s also areas of thinner more diluted paint, drips and splatters, and other marks in muted tones which create a kind of push-pull effect. It gives the sense that she's really pushing the boundaries of the medium. That small dash of brown right on the upper-right edge makes me think about Helen Frankenthaler and how she used colour as both form and gesture. Ultimately, the painting embraces the beauty of ambiguity and invites us to find our own meaning within its dynamic composition.