Tyranny of the Corner (Sashay Set), 1962

In 1962, Town began a series of large formal canvases that depart from his lush and spontaneous Abstract Expressionist handling of paint. He set a number of predetermined rules to govern the composition.

Before starting to paint on the primed canvas, Town applies thin washes of blue-black paint at the centre and tilts the surface to make the paint run. This creates an area of chance, of amorphous shapes. He fills in parts of the canvas in black, creating a figure-ground tension at the irregular edges where the black ends and the grey ground seems to invade it.