A work of extraordinary conceptual continuity with Plaid Man (122) — the earliest dated work in the collection from 1968 — revisiting the grid and checker vocabulary but now applied to abstract forms in space rather than a human face. Multiple plaid and checked ribbon-like forms sweep across the composition in arcing curves, each internally patterned with grids, diamonds, and crosshatch marks in various color combinations: yellow-and-black checks, pink-and-blue grids, blue-and-black diamonds, multicolor checks.
These plaid ribbons are set against a pale ground with loose atmospheric washes of orange, pink, and blue — warm passages that give the abstract forms their spatial context. The ribbons curve and intersect, some ending abruptly, some trailing off into the margins. At upper center, a large pale blue oval form — smoother, quieter than the busy ribboned forms — provides a visual rest point against the surrounding pattern energy.
Two additional patterned forms at upper right and lower right appear more rectangular, less dynamic — suggesting the flat surface of fabric or a screen rather than the curving ribbon forms. These contrast with the active curved plaid forms at center-left, creating a tension between dynamic and static pattern.
The connection to Plaid Man is not accidental — Sidney spent his creative life returning to the grid as a way of organizing visual information, from the earliest painting in the collection to this later work. The grid is his recurring philosophical form: the imposition of system on chaos, the discovery of pattern in the randomness of color.