For Pasadena 1969

Joan Miró made this print, all splatters and looping lines, probably with lithography or etching. I can imagine him, lost in the studio, making marks that dance and float across the surface. What was he thinking as the image emerged? Maybe he was feeling playful, letting shapes suggest themselves, one leading to another like a game of exquisite corpse. Look at that big black form, like a strange creature with red eyes and green polka dots. It looms large, but it also feels weightless, buoyed by the spattering of colors around it. There are other shapes too, scattered like confetti: yellow, blue, red, green. It reminds me of Paul Klee, who also played with childlike forms. The image becomes a place for our own imagination, too. Artists riff off one another, across time and space. This openness, this invitation to play, is the best thing painting has to offer.