Quas (23.1.86) 1986

John Hoyland made this painting, Quas, in 1986, though, like all good art, it feels somehow timeless. It's like the paint had a conversation with itself. You can almost imagine Hoyland in his studio, lost in the act of painting, right? What I see are these buttery yellows and oranges, almost like a melting sunset, slapped onto a dark, moody background. The paint's drippy, runny—it’s like he’s letting the material do its thing. Then there's that red blob on the left, kind of like a defiant punctuation mark, and the ring shape up top, all adding to the painting's quirky character. Hoyland was part of a generation of painters who were really pushing the limits of abstraction, asking, "What can paint do?" It is like a question to be resolved in matter, a moment of discovery. He makes me want to run to the studio and throw some paint around.