Number 27 1964

John McLaughlin made this one, “Number 27,” with paint, sometime in the mid-20th century. It's a painting that's so simple, it’s kind of radical. I imagine him, McLaughlin, carefully laying down those blocks of colour. The black, that icy blue, and then this expanse of white. What’s he thinking about? Is he trying to strip away everything unnecessary, get down to some pure essence of seeing? Look at that upper blue line. It's almost like a horizon, but it’s also just a shape, a plane. And the black, not quite a frame, but an edge that pushes everything forward. I think about Barnett Newman, Agnes Martin, other painters who were after something similar. They’re all in conversation, trying to find new ways to make us see, to make us feel, with just colour and form. It’s generous of them.