Blue Quadrant 1984

Denise Green made this painting, Blue Quadrant, with what looks like mixed media, including acrylic paint and graphite. The blue is so saturated, it almost feels like a physical presence. Look how the quadrant sits within a square, as charcoal lines create a playful tension between the square and the implied circle around the quadrant. I love how the white paint streaks down the sides, contrasting with the solid black areas. It’s like the painting is breathing, expanding and contracting, pushing and pulling, all at once. It reminds me of the material quality of Joan Mitchell's paintings, where every stroke feels deliberate yet spontaneous. The more I look, the more I see Green’s process unfolding before my eyes, a conversation between intention and accident, control and release. It's this dance, this embrace of ambiguity, that makes the work so compelling.