Neutral Mix: Cadmium Yellow Deep, Mars Violet 1976

Marcia Hafif made Neutral Mix using Cadmium Yellow Deep and Mars Violet, but you might not guess that from looking at it. It’s interesting how the materiality of the paint becomes so present. It feels like pigment that’s been pushed around, almost like fresco, where color is embedded in the surface. The surface is alive. You get a real sense of touch, of the hand, and of a process. Look closely, and you can see that it’s made of many small marks, a bit like the work of Agnes Martin, where the painting is built up from delicate traces of gesture. But where Martin is about ethereal lightness, this is more earthy and grounded. It feels deeply connected to the physical world. I can see a relationship to the work of someone like Giorgio Morandi, whose paintings of bottles share this sense of quiet contemplation. Hafif and Morandi share a vision of art as an intimate engagement with everyday materials. Art’s a conversation, after all.