Composition abstraite 1962

Huguette Arthur Bertrand made this abstract composition with watercolors, working with a palette of blacks, browns, and subtle pinks. I imagine Bertrand in her studio, the paper laid out before her. The brush dances, or maybe it stabs—the application is so immediate. Look at that dark shape, how it bleeds into the paper, like ink blossoming in water. The pigment thins and pools, leaving traces like shadows. I think of Franz Kline, those stark black and white abstractions, but here, the mood is softer, more intimate. There’s a vulnerability in the washes, a delicacy that belies the bold strokes. You can see the hand of the artist so clearly. These paintings are never really finished, they just reach a point of equilibrium, a pause in the ongoing conversation. We add our voices, our own interpretations. That’s the beauty of it, isn’t it? The endless possibility.