In a cascading medley of amorphic forms and color, Peter Bradley's, Cassini’s Division #3, 1981, allows the eye to ebb and flow through textured washes of paint. Bradley uses acrylic gel paint, a medium that was newly developed at the start of his career, which ultimately results in a uniquely textured piece. This media allows him to combine layered colors and wide passages of texture across the canvas. Much like his Color Field contemporaries, Bradley investigates ideas of abstraction and its relationship to color, yet he creates a niche by blending unique shades of saturation with brilliance to make original interactions between the hues.

For Bradley, his use of color is integral to understanding his larger practice. Bradley states that for him, “color supersedes subject matter.”i Cassini’s Division #3’s distinctive palette allows the viewer to disassociate, creating an almost dream-like effect. The artist intentionally creates a work where it is challenging to decipher a “starting point.” This deliberate lack of directionality feeds into another important mechanism: the idea of the limitless canvas, replicating the infinite nature of the sky, raising questions of where the work begins and ends. That said, the dynamism created amongst the wide textural sweeps gives some guidance into a deeper engagement. Bradley’s use of texture, oscillating between thin applications of paint to thick impasto-like lines creates an aqueous aesthetic, mimicking the organic movement created by puddles. The metaphoric connection to nature that Bradley establishes is part of his larger ethos on abstraction.
“Abstraction is always oppositional. It displaces language, is subversive of the prosaic – of the ordinary, and of explanatory or narrative text – and can only be approached indirectly, by simile and metaphor.”
—Peter Bradley
Furthering this indirect relationship between abstraction and subject matter, Bradley decidedly titles his works to represent his varied interests, from astronomy to jazz and cultural icons. In this case, the present work is titled after the astronomical region, Cassini Division. This division is stated as “the darkest region between the two brightest rings of Saturn.”ii Bradley represents this region within the work by creating an interplay of negative space that is found between the two large washes of color that occupy a substantial portion of the canvas and stand in stark contrast to the dark layered background. Highlighting Bradley’s complex relationship with both color and abstraction, Cassini’s Division #3 represents an amalgam of Bradley’s varied interests within his artistic practice and oeuvre at large. Cassini’s Division #3 draws attention to Bradley’s interpretation of abstraction as it shifts away from self and turns outward, exploring the connection between the world that takes place both on and off the canvas.