Juanito Laguna Remontando Un Barrilete 1973

This is Antonio Berni's 'Juanito Laguna Remontando Un Barrilete', and you can see how Berni's put this together like he's building something, not just painting it. The colours are bright, but they're also kind of rough, like he's using whatever he could find. I imagine Berni, totally focused, layering these materials, stepping back, adding more. The paint looks thick in places, then scrubbed back, almost raw. It's like a conversation with the materials themselves. The boy is in the middle of the painting, he's got this kite, and you feel him pulling against the wind, right? The pink cloud looks unreal, it makes me think of the way Guston put colour in his clouds. There is this dialogue across time, each artist riffing on what came before, totally making it their own, and then adding to the conversation. It's all about feeling, intention, a kind of raw expression that throws meaning wide open.