Constellation, Milky Way 1970

Leon Polk Smith made this *Constellation, Milky Way* without a specified date, using paint on two joined canvases. Look at the colours; white, black and that intense blue! And the shapes; a circle kissing an oval. The paint is smooth, like he wanted to remove any trace of his hand, which makes you think about the difference between something handmade and something that looks machine-made. But it's not! You can see tiny imperfections if you get up close. That blue section at the top feels like it wants to slide right off the canvas. It’s so precise, so contained within its boundary, that it almost feels like it could be peeled away. I find myself thinking about Ellsworth Kelly when I look at this, especially the way he uses shapes to play with space and colour. But where Kelly is cool, Smith feels warmer, more playful somehow. Ultimately, it reminds us that art is a conversation across time, where artists borrow, steal, and transform ideas, making them their own.