Serge Poliakoff's oeuvre can be considered as one of the most exceptional achievements not only of his times but also within Abstract art and by extension Modern art.
In his works from around 1960 Poliakoff increasingly worked with subtle nuances, as it is the case in this painting. The vertical division of the canvas is based on the opposition between the colours employed: a warm orange and cold blue, underlined by an intense red and a lighter blue.
During his career, Poliakoff experimented many plastic and graphic possibilities. The question of the line and its role in the construction of his works is one of the most recurrent themes in his approach. In the late 1940's, he progressively abandoned the use of drawn lines to define the different spaces within his works. In this composition, the colours themself engendered their own forms; the line has disappeared or is only suggested by the common borders of adjacent shapes. The contours are always slightly bent, so that the interlocked forms are subject to an imperceptive vibration. The subtle interplay of tensions between colours creates a delicate dynamism and rhythm, two important elements in Serge Poliakoff's art which has then attained its full maturity.
