Yellow Painting 1969

Here is a painting in yellow by Peter Joseph. When I look at this, I think about art-making as a long, slow process. The color is consistent across the whole surface, but it's got some cool variety within that consistency. It looks like he built up thin layers of paint, maybe with a soft brush or even a cloth, creating a smooth, luminous surface. The way the paint seems to glow suggests light, which is a pretty cool magic trick. There is something meditative about this work, and it reminds me of Agnes Martin. Both artists take simplicity seriously, and that is not always an easy thing to do. It is hard to make something simple, but maybe the complexity is in the looking? Anyway, I never get tired of art that embraces ambiguity. It’s like a conversation that never ends.