How could Town connect this painting with Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675)? He had long been interested in Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), whose work is noted for its order and structure, and Vermeer’s work shared those qualities. He was a master, too, of rendering light and space. Here Town interweaves random curvilinear shapes (the fragments of broken glass balls) with the surface dazzle of Op art and integrates both into a highly ordered composition. In a 1967 catalogue essay on Town, his dealer, Jerrold Morris, sums up the priorities that came to the fore in his late 1960s work: “It is characterized by complexity controlled by intelligence, lyricism contained by formality.”

This Spotlight is excerpted from Harold Town: Life & Work by Gerta Moray.