Hyper-Text 6-2-98C 1998

Irma Blank made this small painting, Hyper-Text 6-2-98C, on paper, sometime around 1998. It looks like it’s made up of layered fields of text, pale and quiet, almost like a whisper. The overall effect is kind of ghostly, with a real sense of art-making as a meditative, repetitive process. Up close, you can see the texture of the paper coming through the pale pigment, creating a subtle, tactile surface. The letters are soft and blurred, as though trying to disappear into the ground, each mark both present and absent, kind of like a memory. I see in the middle ground there are some vertical and diagonal strokes, that don't follow the grid structure that dominate the composition. For me, this area seems like a point of disruption or release within the rigid structure of the piece. Blank's work reminds me a bit of Agnes Martin, especially in its quietness and dedication to a limited palette. Like Martin, Blank uses repetition and subtle variation to create an atmosphere that is both contemplative and strangely moving. Both artists show us how much can be said with very little, inviting us to slow down and really look.