Construction 1969

Alexander Bogen made this painting called ‘Construction’ with oil paint, and judging from the signature, sometime in 1969. I love how the angular shapes dance across the canvas like pieces of a puzzle, or maybe shards of glass reflecting a fractured world. The materiality of the paint is really important here. Bogen lays down thick, juicy strokes of blues, whites, and greens. Zooming in, you can see the texture, the subtle ridges where the brush dragged the pigment across the surface. Look at the top right, there's this patch of bright white, almost like a highlight, and then the little pink and red mark nestled inside of it. It’s an accent that electrifies the composition. It reminds me a little of Joan Mitchell’s paintings, in the way that both artists use abstraction to convey a sense of emotional intensity. What’s so cool about art is that it's not about answers, but about possibilities. It’s an invitation to play with ideas and see the world in a new way.