Red and Green with Pale Colors 1966

Robert Goodnough made "Red and Green with Pale Colors" sometime in the mid-20th century. It looks like he began with a thinly painted, creamy white surface, before adding these floating rectangles. I’m struck by the delicacy of touch. The colors are so quiet; the blocks of color are defined by the barest whisper of a green outline. There's something about the way the colored rectangles sit on the surface, almost like a child's blocks arranged and rearranged. You could imagine Goodnough shuffling them around, looking for the right combination. In the lower left, there's a rectangle that’s been filled in with pale blue, sitting next to a square that’s almost the same shade of yellow as the background. The way these two shapes play off each other makes me think of Mondrian, but with a softer, more playful edge. Like a jazz riff on a very serious tune. And, of course, that's what art is, an ongoing conversation, a remix of ideas, always open to new interpretations.