Panel c. 20th century

This Panel lives at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and was made by an anonymous artist. Isn’t it great to find a kindred spirit across time? I can only imagine the meditative action of its making. I wonder, did the artist feel kinship with others who work in this grid-like way? Maybe they felt alone, or maybe they were tapping into something bigger than themselves. I love to imagine them sitting with this indigo fabric, considering where to place the purple and blue lines, and how it might shift the whole. I love its imperfections, the way the woven structure shows through. It reminds me of the work of Agnes Martin, who used a similar grid to express something both simple and incredibly complex. It's as if they are both speaking a similar language, but with different accents and intentions. We, as artists, are always building on what has come before, riffing on the ideas of others, and I think that's what makes art so exciting. It's a constant conversation, a back-and-forth across time and space, inspiring each other to see the world in new ways.