Rite of Spring 1985

Ronnie Landfield made "Rite of Spring" with paint, but it's like, what kind? Watercolour? Acrylic? Who knows! Whatever it is, it’s been put down and allowed to spread and stain. You get the feeling that the piece was made bit by bit, each colour interacting with those around it, like some kind of trippy science experiment. Up top there’s a section of yellow that bleeds into a kind of chalky white. The paint seems pretty thin, almost like he’s poured it on and let it do its thing. This thinness, and the way it spreads, gives it this airy, dreamy feel. Then, you get to the bottom and these grounded areas of geometric colour blocks. There’s something about the colour combination, and the way they sit against the washes of the upper part of the picture, that makes me think of Helen Frankenthaler. But Landfield is doing his own thing, searching for something out there, and creating this abstract landscape that's all his own.