Lutte as Ciel 1937

John Ferren made this painting, Lutte as Ciel, with oil paint, and it's a real trip. Look at how the forms seem to wrestle with each other, the colours blending and pushing against each other, like a conversation. The surface has this smooth, almost airbrushed quality, which is kind of unusual. There aren’t any brushstrokes to speak of. You could almost think he was trying to hide the process, but it makes the colours and shapes stand out even more. Check out the way he blends red into orange, into white. Ferren’s painting reminds me a little of early work by another American modernist, Arthur Dove, but less folksy. Both artists see abstraction as a way to capture something essential about the world. It's all about feeling and expression, and less about knowing for sure.