Untitled 1997

This untitled work is by Moshe Kupferman. It's made with marks and washes that accumulate into layers of pale grays and blues. I’m imagining Kupferman, brush in hand, building up this image square by square, line by line. Look at the way the grid floats over a wash of color, almost like a screen. Then, these looping gestures dance over the grid. It feels so tentative and searching. Kupferman is feeling his way through, making something that feels provisional, like a diagram for something that can’t quite be named. This reminds me of other artists who use grids, like Agnes Martin, but with a crucial difference. Kupferman’s grid is broken. The circle isn’t complete. The painting has a built-in sense of incompletion. Maybe that is what he’s saying about how we can never truly grasp reality. Even though this piece seems simple, it invites so many readings, so much seeing and thinking.