Blue Quadrant 1984

Denise Green made this painting, Blue Quadrant, with a palette of blacks, whites, and grays interrupted by the blue form that gives the painting its name. It looks like a geometric abstraction but there are also these loose, scribbled lines that dance around the surface. I can imagine Green in the studio, responding to the canvas, adding and subtracting, letting the painting evolve through her intuitive decisions. There's a tension between the solid blue shape and the energetic mark-making that surrounds it. Those white, brushy marks look as though they are on the verge of dissolving into the darker colors. It's a really beautiful balance between control and chaos. I think of Cy Twombly, and other painters who embrace the beauty of imperfection, where the process of painting becomes a record of thought and feeling. The blue quadrant itself almost becomes a shadow, something cut off, but also something very present. It’s a reminder that art is not about answers, but about the questions we ask along the way.