1957-D No. 1 1957

Clyfford Still made this painting titled 1957-D No. 1 without a date, but it was probably made in 1957. The way the black and yellow sort of tear into each other, well, it makes me think about painting as an act of excavation. Still isn’t building an image so much as he’s digging into it, pulling back layers to reveal something underneath. And look at the surface! The paint isn’t just lying there; it’s got this real physicality to it, thick in some spots, thin in others. You can almost feel the scrape of the palette knife or brush as he dragged it across the canvas. See that little fleck of red right there in the middle? It’s like a tiny rupture in the surface, a moment of pure emotion bursting through. For me, this piece is a bit like Barnett Newman’s work, but with more angst, maybe like a fight between godlike beings? Like a battle between layers and colors. And that’s what makes it so alive.