The lush green surface of Milton Resnick’s Roswell #2 evokes a sense of the organic. The surface reveals itself slowly as the viewer has to break down the verdant display in order to decipher meaning. Brush strokes go in every direction, as a sense of unity and disunity happily coexist. Roswell #2 is unfigured, yet the warm shades of greens and browns make the work feel similar, almost to the point where it becomes tangible. Roswell #2 allows the viewer to take a stroll through a grassy field or an open-air park. It is a breath of fresh air. Resnick may have intended for this. In an interview with Geoffrey Dorfman, he said “There is nothing physical” about what he does. All he does is “breathe” onto the canvas. (G. Dorfman, Out of the Picture: Milton Resnick and the New York School. New York, 2002. p. 205).
Roswell #2 is an opportunity to internalize the vision that fueled artists following the Second World War. Roswell #2’s swiftness, spontaneity, and evocation of the subconscious illustrate core pillars of Abstract Expressionism, the profound artistic movement that inspired likes among Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning (Resnick’s neighbor.) While the paint of Roswell #2 is confined the canvas, Resnick’s artistic vision within the piece is fluid. Roswell #2’s unmasked expression of naturalism exists unbounded. Resnick saw the canvas as a place where emotion cannot escape. He attempted to capture the essence of ideas and concepts in his works in order to cleanse the mind. This is precisely what occurs when one faces Roswell #2.