Exhibition Review: Anders Knutsson’s  The Ultimate Radical Painting

In his latest exhibition at The Wall Gallery, The Ultimate Radical Painting, Brooklyn-based artist Anders Knutsson invites viewers into a fascinating but unknown art-territory where the painting serves as a bridge between the rational mind and the spiritual. Spanning four decades of work from 1986 to 2026, the exhibition is a masterclass in how you can experience the dual character of phosphorescence—paintings that function as traditional works in the light but transform into dynamic, light-emitting entities in the dark.

The Alchemy of Light
The phosphorescent pigment finds its roots in 17th-century alchemy, tracing a lineage back to the 1602 discovery of the “Bologna Stone” – a dense, silvery-white mineral (barite) the first documented material to show persistent luminescence. Knutsson has taken this mineral that has mystified many and has created art whose reaction that many have is wow!

The exhibition is both scientific and artistic.  It showcases the technical evolution of the material from early zinc-sulfide pigments to contemporary strontium aluminate-based materials. This scientific rigor is balanced by a poetic exploration of binary relationships: the “Day Image” (reflected light) and the “Night Image” (emitted light). The “coin with two faces” or a yin/yang symbol are actually poor metaphors for the dualities of this relation. The Day state being static while the Night, the ‘lights off’, is dynamic as each color fades at a different speed.

Texture and Spontaneity
In the 1980’s, Knutson was part of the “Radical Painters” in New York City.  This group stressed the materiality of the painting – Knutsson focused on the linen and the paint in his work at the time.  He has remained true to this exploration but expanded the range of materials that he uses – particularly the linen.  His collaboration with Swedish weavers Hanna Isaksson and Bettina Posselt have resulted in handwoven linen that possesses a singular individuality, a  “personality,” and provides a rich landscape of textures and colors before a single stroke of paint is applied.  The exhibition showcases the fusion of art and craft, using the texture of the handwoven linen as part of the expression of the painting.

Knutsson has always been a very serious, dedicated and gifted artist.  Now that he is an octogenarian, he is throwing seriousness to the wind and replacing it with play and spontaneity.  We see the result in the fantastical Jazz in the Pentagon (2025). He was working on a 5-piece Pentagon work inspired by the DoD’s famous structure in Washington, D.C.  The center piece was blank.  One evening, he attended a performance by his dear friend, the jazz pianist Joanne Brackeen.  The evening was an experience of amazing improvisation and play.  He came back to his studio and kept playing … the result is Jazz in the Pentagon In the pivotal work, Knutsson utilizes “unsupported paint”—scraps of pigment pinned directly to the wall—to capture the playful energy of that late-night jam session. It is a striking departure that shows the medium is not just about the glow, but also about the freedom of play.

A Paradoxical Experience
The exhibition succeeds most in its ability to provoke baffled surprise. By turning off the gallery lights, the audience can witness quantum mechanics in real-time, observing photons that simultaneously reflect and glow. Knutsson reminds us that while masters like Vermeer and Rembrandt were kings of reflected light, the territory of dynamic emitted light in total darkness remains a frontier.

The Ultimate Radical Painting is more than an exhibition of this radical material -it is a profound meditation on the physics of light and the enduring mystery of a material that produces its own inner light. It is a rare show that appeals equally to the professional rubbing their chin in wonder and the child clapping their hands in pure delight.

Knutsson is both artist and scientist.  In his artist statement, Anders Knutsson highlights that his work is not merely a visual spectacle but a tangible way to witness quantum mechanics in action. The dual character of his paintings—functioning as both reflected objects and emitted light sources—serves as a macroscopic metaphor for the fundamental laws of physics. Knutsson draws a direct parallel between the lights on/lights of experience of his exhibition and the classic wave-particle duality of light found at the atomic level – the magic of the phosphorescent glow is essentially a slow-motion version of light emission governed by quantum states.

Ultimately, The Ultimate Radical Painting serves as a profound testament to a lifelong journey of navigating “unknown art-territory” where science and spirituality converge. By harnessing the physics of photons—particles with zero mass and no charge that travel at the speed of light—Anders Knutsson transcends the traditional limits of the medium. His work does not merely depict light; it is light, acting as a powerful metaphor for the binary relationships of day and night, the visible and the incomprehensible, that define the human experience. Whether through the textured landscape of handwoven Swedish linen or the spontaneous play of unsupported pigments, Knutsson continues to bridge the gap between the rational mind and the spirit, leaving his audience in a state of baffled surprise that has remained unchanged for over forty years.

Doris Schultz, April 23, 2026