Ralph
Humphrey did
very interesting work in the sixties. His close valued earth colored
border paintings with softly brushed surfaces are closer to Marden's
work especially in touch than my border paintings were. Humphrey's
border paintings connect to mine in format but where mine verge
on literal depictions of the void his were much more painterly.
His nice touch, close values and felt surfaces lend a sense of
concentration to his work of this period. He also made a series
of line paintings in 1966 that connect to Marden, Christensen,
early Pettet and some of my work of 1966-1967. I think Humphrey
is a vastly underrated painter. His stain paintings of 1967-1968
are amazingly lyrical and his shaped canvasses through 1971 are
also boldly lyrical. As the seventies progressed his work got less
pictorial and more object oriented which is a shame. Unfortunately
I think the Formalist, Anti-Formalist rhetoric split Humphrey apart.
