Rockintored 2011

Frank Bowling made Rockintored with what looks like acrylic paint, and maybe some gel medium to thicken it up. You can tell he’s really playing with the idea of how paint can behave. There's this intense, almost vibrating red that Bowling uses as a base, and then he builds up these rectangular forms. The top one is a solid, somber maroon, like a shadow, while the larger central form explodes with yellows and oranges. It’s as if he's asking, "What can paint do?" How much can it drip, pool, and mingle? The edges of that central patch, where the yellow meets the red, are so delicious; it’s a real material conversation. There’s an artist called Ida Applebroog, who also worked with layering and staining in the 70's, and it's clear that artists have been in dialogue about the ways that paint can be both a representation and a thing in itself for a long time. There is no right answer.