Composition in Blue and Yellow 1995

Alexander Bogen made this untitled painting called, ‘Composition in Blue and Yellow’ using bold, unrestrained brushstrokes. I can really imagine him, paintbrush in hand, building up the layers, shifting colours to get the right balance between the somber blues and yellows. I sympathise with the artist, trying to orchestrate a controlled mess. It reminds me of Joan Mitchell’s work, which uses color and gesture to create a sense of depth and emotional intensity, but Bogen is looser, messier. See how the reds bleed into the yellows, creating this vibrating intensity that the eye can’t quite resolve. Someone once said that painting is like wrestling with your demons—a sentiment I understand all too well! I see Bogen wrestling with the possibilities and limits of paint, pushing the boundaries of abstraction to see what new forms and meanings might emerge. In the end, it's these types of experiments which expand the language of painting.