Rouso 1963

Paul Feeley made this painting, Rouso, with flat blocks of red and yellow divided by a curvy blue line. I imagine Feeley starting with these rectangles of pure color, maybe thinking about color theory, the way colors vibrate against each other, or how they flatten space. It's so controlled, and yet that blue line introduces a bit of a wiggle, right? I think he’s playing. That curved line is what makes the whole thing sing for me. It’s the kind of gesture you might find in Matisse, but here, it's more about a simple butting-up, a meeting of form and color. It’s playful, but the tension is built on Feeley's deep thinking about how shapes and colors speak to each other, like a minimal conversation between friends.