Swim 1967

Jack Bush made this painting, Swim, with what looks like acrylic on canvas. You can feel the way he really let the paint do its thing. It is soaked into the fabric, unburdened. The colors feel pulled from some sunny, mid-century modern dream. Look at how he just lets those stripes of color sit next to each other, not fussing too much about blending or shading. It's like he's saying, "Here are these colors, deal with it." Take the line where that pale yellow diagonal meets the brown horizontal – the slightest wavering in that edge shows Bush wasn't after perfection. It gives the painting a kind of laid-back vibe, like a jazz solo where the musician is just riffing. And in that spirit, I think of Helen Frankenthaler letting her colors stain the canvas, or maybe Kenneth Noland playing with shapes and stripes. It's all part of this big, ongoing conversation that painters have been having for years.