Denib El Delphini 1965

Paul Feeley made this sculpture, Denib El Delphini, out of wood and paint. It's a geometric form made from flat planes; blue, red, and white shapes stacked together, like a weird butterfly. What was Feeley thinking, making this funny thing? I picture him in his studio, sanding the wood, carefully applying each layer of paint. The surface looks smooth, almost machine-made, but you can still see the hand of the artist in the slight imperfections and wobbly lines. The way Feeley juxtaposes those colors – the deep blue against the bright white and red – reminds me of hard-edge painters like Ellsworth Kelly, but with a kind of goofy twist. I think that artists are always looking at what others do, and then doing their own thing. They take what they need and run with it. Painting for me has always been about responding and thinking through colour. We see how Feeley takes simple materials and transforms them into something else entirely. And that's what art is all about.