Red Dance 1969

Kenneth Young made "Red Dance" with paint, the date is unknown, and what a beautiful and energetic dance it is. Imagine the artist in the studio, perhaps listening to music, making these marks one by one. There’s something about how the paint pools and blooms outward, like ink dropped into water, that suggests a letting go. The paint isn’t forced or overworked; it’s allowed to be itself. You can see Young experimenting with the viscosity of the paint and the absorbency of the surface, almost a form of controlled chaos. I keep thinking about Helen Frankenthaler, but with a twist. Where Frankenthaler stained the canvas, Young builds up these small, discrete units. Each daub of color seems to vibrate independently, yet they all come together in a unified field of visual energy. These shades of red and orange, with their dark undertones, create a fiery, passionate mood. It’s like looking at a field of poppies in full bloom, or embers glowing in a fire. It's a reminder that painting is alive, always evolving, and always in conversation with itself.