Untitled 1989

Robert Barry made this monochromatic painting with ink on vellum. The colour, a kind of radiant teal, has an extraordinary smoothness. I think of Agnes Martin when I look at it, though Barry works with something more akin to blocks of colour, areas of solid surface and geometric form. What's interesting here is the relationship between surface and the conceptual gesture, which seems to test the limits of painting. The slight variations in tone make it feel like the colour is somehow breathing. Look closely at the edges, the ink bleeds slightly into the white, almost as if it's dissolving, or evaporating. It’s funny how a solid block of colour can make you consider immaterial things. It's as if the material substance is just a stand-in for something else, another state of being. It points to the way art is in a perpetual state of becoming, a conversation with itself.