Blu 1970

This is Agostino Bonalumi's "Blu," and it kind of messes with your perception, right? I'm thinking about Bonalumi in his studio, maybe late at night, pushing the canvas from behind to make that cool bulge. It’s like he's sculpting with the surface itself, so the painting becomes a kind of low-relief sculpture. The blue is so smooth, so even, it feels like a skin stretched tight over a form. That curve on the side – it’s so inviting, like a gentle slope you could slide down. I'm reminded of Lucio Fontana slashing his canvases, also from Italy. They were both playing with the idea of space and surface, pushing the limits of what a painting could be. Artists are always responding to each other, picking up on ideas, and twisting them in new directions. The whole history of art is just one big, messy conversation!