Untitled 1998

This untitled painting was made by Moshe Kupferman, though the date is unknown. It's like looking at a construction site in my neighborhood, all half-finished ideas and muted colors. Kupferman's got this way of building up layers, sort of like palimpsests, where you see traces of what was there before. The surface has got this cool, gritty texture, and the colors are really understated, mostly grays, pinks, and a bit of green. The paint looks almost scrubbed in places, really thin, then in other areas, there are these thick, juicy strokes like the grey diagonal that give it weight. See that little arc down at the bottom, the one with the frenetic squiggles? It feels like it's trying to escape from underneath the weight of everything else, bursting into life. You know, looking at this, I can’t help but think of the great Cy Twombly, another artist who wasn’t afraid to embrace the messy, imperfect beauty of marks and lines. It’s all about leaving things open to possibility, not tying it all up in a neat little bow.