Pincio 1959

Nicolas Carone made this painting, Pincio, using soft brushstrokes in a muted color palette. I’m thinking about Carone in his studio, maybe in the late twentieth century, layering these soft blocks of color. What’s so cool about paint is how it can be built up and scraped away—pushed around until the artist arrives at a composition that feels resolved, or maybe unresolved, alive with possibility. The broad strokes of white here create a hazy ground over which blues, greens, and yellows come forward. I’m drawn to the interplay of geometric forms with loose, gestural marks. Take that long stroke of yellow—it's as if he wanted to disrupt any sense of stability or order. It makes me think of the work of someone like Forrest Bess, who had a very different approach to color but a similar interest in the subconscious. Artists are always in dialogue, you know? Bess is trying to make sense of a dream and Carone is figuring out how to make a painting. For me, a painting is a record of the artist's search.