11-68 1968

Nassos Daphnis made 11-68, probably with acrylic paint, and sometime in the 1960s. It looks like the kind of hard-edged abstraction that was popular at the time. The red, white, yellow and blue are primary, almost childish, but the way they are put together is incredibly sophisticated. There's a kind of optical play happening, where the colors seem to vibrate against each other. You can see how flat the paint is; each color is clearly defined. If you look closely at the red oval in the center, you can see the way Daphnis has managed to make it look like it's floating in space. It’s like the opposite of brushy expressionism, but it still has a kind of cool beauty. Thinking about Daphnis's earlier landscape paintings, you can see how he was always interested in simplifying and abstracting forms. This piece feels like a natural progression, but it reminds me of some of the Op Art paintings of Bridget Riley, but maybe with a bit more of a playful spirit.