Light From Square Red 1984

Sadamasa Motonaga made this serene painting with squares and simple shapes. It’s so quiet that it’s as if the painting has settled into itself, gradually shifting and emerging through slow, intuitive gestures. I wonder what Motonaga was thinking when he made this? It makes me think of Agnes Martin, or maybe even Rothko, in the way the color seems to float off the surface. The paint is thin, almost like a dye, which gives it a kind of delicacy. The red is so solid and sure of itself. It's so simple! Like an image in a dream. That black dot, just hanging at the edge of the red, is so strange and wonderful, it feels like a secret. Painters always have each other in mind. We are in conversation across time. Like a message from another world that speaks to something deep inside you.