Bouquet’s bright use of color and layered brushwork, anticipates the ambitious series of large-scale abstractions Felrath Hines produced in the 1960s. Hines possessed a masterful understanding of the complexities of oil painting, gleaned through his successful career as a conservator. A founding member of the Spiral Group, a Black artists’ collective that sought to center marginalized artists, Hines remained committed to his personal language of abstraction, which served as a radical departure from the forms of visual art expected from Black artists at the time—typically realistic paintings of African heritage and history.