Alex Bacon and Barbara Rose talk to painter James Bishop on the occasion of his exhibition at David Zwirner Gallery, New York, on view through October 25, 2014.

Bishop comments on close-value divisions of form in the paintings: "I don’t want to make a monochrome! I don’t want to make a square that’s all one thing. The most important thing is finding some way to divide up the surface that is interesting, and you’d be surprised how much you can get out of this kind of thing, putting it this way and that way…

On a structural reading of the paintings: "The reading of them as referential to the paintings’ material structure is really off, and if they think it looks like a door or something, what does it matter?…"

On the necessity of letting the experience of the paintings unfold over time: "I don’t really feel that I should be trying to make things as easy as possible. I like to make it a little difficult."