332 r 1932

Carl Buchheister made this painting, 332 r, with what looks like oil on canvas, and, looking at it, you can just imagine the act of painting itself—layer upon layer, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. I sympathise with Buchheister! I wonder what it might have been like to create? What was he thinking when he made it? The paint seems really thin, almost like watercolour and these elements shape our experience of the painting so much. They contribute to the emotional and intellectual resonances of the work. Just look at the angle of that bold red rectangle, and how it seems to slice through the off-white background. You get the feeling of depth and movement. Artists are always in an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is a form of embodied expression, and this piece really embraces ambiguity and uncertainty. So many ways of seeing it are possible.