Alpha Upsilon 1960

Morris Louis made this painting, Alpha Upsilon, using acrylic on canvas. I can imagine Louis in his studio, pouring diluted paint onto the canvas, coaxing these rivulets of colour into existence. There's this sense of control and surrender, a dance between intention and chance. The colours are gorgeous—warm yellows and reds, cool blues and greens—they cascade down the canvas like a waterfall. I feel the pull of gravity, a force shaping the paint's journey. What was Louis thinking as he watched these colours merge and separate? Was he thinking about Helen Frankenthaler who pioneered the soak-stain technique? I wonder if he felt like he was collaborating with the paint itself? Painting is such an embodied experience. You can see the hand of the artist in the gestures, the way they load the brush, the angle they hold it. The canvas becomes a record of that interaction, a trace of thought made visible.