Partition 1962

Morris Louis made this painting, "Partition," with acrylic on canvas. I imagine that when Louis made this, he really let the paint soak into the fabric. I can see the coloured rivulets as they seem to run and pool in the weave of the canvas. There are these two distinct sections, one sitting above the other, like the top and bottom halves of a landscape. When you look at it closely, you can see how the colours blend and bleed together. The way the pigment merges creates a soft, blurry edge, like looking at something through frosted glass. I wonder if he was thinking about Helen Frankenthaler or maybe even Rothko as he was making it; you can see how artists are in an ongoing conversation, exchanging ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. This painting is a reminder that art doesn’t have to be fixed or definite. We can sit with it, let it affect us, and allow ourselves to respond in our own way.