Time 1952

Alexander Liberman made this painting, Time, with clean lines of yellow and black acrylic on canvas. Just imagine the moment he placed that first circle on the canvas. I can see Liberman thinking about space, almost like a planet, in a solar system. What I love about it is its simplicity. There’s a large sun-like yellow circle, bisected with three black circles. He has then continued the line of black circles, three on either side of the yellow form. It's almost mathematical. I can imagine him trying to create order, trying to align the circles perfectly, but, of course, they never are and that’s where the magic lies. Liberman was a sculptor, painter, photographer, and designer, and, in this piece, you see he is a true minimalist. Creating a painting with this amount of space and such simple forms has a confidence that is almost brazen! It is a painting which stands alone but which also joins a conversation between all artists and abstraction.