Recently I was at the Museum of Modern Art and saw couple paintings that reminded me of things I noted about Judy Cooke’s terrific painting show at Elizabeth Leach Gallery (http://www.orartswatch.org/judy-cooke-and-the-quiet-challenge/).

First, I came upon this Picasso, Repose, 1908:

The strong lines reminded me of the motif in Cooke’s Circuit:

Picasso’s lines derive from the “felt” structure and dynamism of the figure that he is working from, while Cooke’s lines seem to be improvised  in response to the shape of the  blank canvas. When I invert the Picasso image, the similarity is even more striking:

Not to make too much of this, but it is about organization and structure.

Then I saw this Mondrian, Composition No.II, with Red and Blue, 1929.

I mentioned Mondrian in my review, as he certainly was involved in structure, but his lines are clearly hand painted. The thing about Mondrian in this painting is how he decided to carry the image around the side, just as Cooke does in several of her paintings (like Circuit  above).

On the right side the line goes around the edge, on the left it stops short. An important “painter’s decision.”

And Cooke makes these decisions, too.