Untitled 1986

Olivier Mosset made this 'Untitled' painting with what appears to be acrylic paint, layering a blue circle on a pink ground. I wonder what it was like for him, making such a bold and simple statement. Was it hard to choose those colors? Did he make any other versions? The flatness of the colors emphasizes the physical reality of the canvas itself. It’s almost as if he's asking us to really see what painting is, you know, at its most basic. A colored object. Yet that blue circle has a funny depth to it, and I wonder what it is about the pink that sets it off. Mosset must have been having a conversation with other painters who were thinking about the essential qualities of the medium, like Barnett Newman or Kenneth Noland. When we look at this, we’re invited to participate in that dialogue across time. Each painter learns from those who came before.