Sem título 1983

Menez, who was born in Portugal, made this untitled painting with oils, and what strikes me is the feeling of building something up through layers and gestures. It's like watching a painter think aloud. Look at the surface. The paint isn't trying to trick you into seeing something real; it's just itself, scrubbed and scumbled. There's a part in the lower right corner where the color is built up in chunky marks, kind of like a wall of abstract bricks, setting up a contrast to the transparent washes in the upper left. It’s got this real tactile thing going on. It's like Menez is saying, "Here's the stuff, here's what it can do." This reminds me a little of Joan Mitchell’s work, that same energy and confidence in putting down marks. It's like they're both having a conversation about what paint can do, pushing it, pulling it, and seeing what happens. And in the end, it's not about any one answer, but all the possibilities.