Rosemarie Castoro Blue Blue Y, 1965

Widely held as a visionary of Minimalism, Rosemarie Castoro embarked on an exploration of the potential of colour and form in an early body of paintings created in the mid-1960s. 'In 1965,' she explains, 'a dominant element emerged: the "Y". I answered its question by painting "Y"s on 7-foot square single colour fields.' Blue Blue Y (1965) is a result of this experimentation, its title describing the close colour contrast of the blue-on-blue palette. Scattered across the canvas in different orientations, the 'Y'-figures evoke a dynamic sense of movement akin to dance, introducing a playfulness that enlivens the geometric rigour of Minimalism, while simultaneously referencing the multidisciplinary nature of Castoro's practice, which incorporated dance alongside her work in painting and sculpture. Early paintings, such as Blue Blue Y, attracted the attention of Castoro's fellow artists, with the painter Frank Stella declaring her 'one of the better colourists' among their contemporaries.

A solo exhibition of Rosemarie Castoro's paintings from the mid-1960s, organised by the Judd Foundation, is currently on view at 101 Spring Street in New York until 24 June 2023.