The Whole Soul Summed Up 1979

Christopher Wilmarth made this drawing with charcoal and pastel, and right away, I'm drawn to the way the image emerges from a darkness, like a thought taking shape. There's this central oval form, rendered in soft reds and pinks, almost like a heart or a womb. Surrounding it are these hazy blues and the whole thing sits against a field of dark, smudged charcoal. It's not about clean lines or perfect shapes, but about the process of feeling and finding form. You can almost see Wilmarth working and reworking the surface, searching for the right balance. That little black line that anchors the red shape really holds my attention. It’s so small, but it adds such definition. I wonder if Wilmarth had Agnes Martin in mind, I see a similar interest in the grid and how it is defined by a single point. Like all the best art, there's a sense of mystery and ambiguity here, a feeling that the whole soul is more than the sum of its parts.