My Painting Drips 1966

Gerard Fromanger, sometime in the last half-century, made "My Painting Drips" in the spirit of a comic strip—or maybe in the spirit of Pop Art. I’m imagining the artist taking a brush loaded with red paint, and just letting it drip. Then I imagine him thinking, ‘what if I caught the drip halfway?’ The painting becomes a sequence of events, almost like stop-motion animation. Red is such a dramatic color. It's vital, angry, and alive. It's got a bold emotional punch. There’s something funny about this work, the way it stops a liquid in time. It reminds me a little bit of Magritte. I’m sure Fromanger was looking at other artists and thinking about what painting could be. That’s the thing about being a painter, it’s all a conversation, across time, all these echoes, and influences. It’s about finding your own voice in the mix.