Untitled 2009

Jacob Kassay made this untitled painting using a muted palette, it’s pretty much silver with some shades of grey, and maybe a hint of gold. I can imagine him in the studio, you know, pushing the paint around, trying to get it just right. The surface shimmers, almost like a mirror, but not quite. I bet he was thinking about reflection, both literally and figuratively, as if it was trying to capture a mood. The paint looks thin, almost like a wash, which gives it this ethereal quality. There's this one spot in the lower left corner where the grey is a little darker, like a shadow. It's kind of haunting, like a ghost of a gesture. I bet he’s had a conversation with other painters like Gerhard Richter or even Yves Klein, those guys who were also into surfaces and light. In the end, it’s not just about what you see, but what you feel, what gets stirred up inside you. And that’s the magic of painting, right?