Mirabelle Addenda 2 1979

Brice Marden made this drawing, Mirabelle Addenda 2, on paper with ink, and you can really see the hand of the artist in the tentative, searching lines, the splatters and drips. It’s like a map of the artist’s thought process. The paper is this slightly mottled, pale green color, a kind of earthy tone, and the ink is black. The contrast between the two creates this tension, this sort of visual hum. It’s mostly lines forming a square, but these lines are really active, they're kind of broken and uneven, and at the top left, you can see where the ink has pooled and run down the paper. It's a great reminder that art doesn't need to be about perfect shapes or perfect ideas, it can be about the messy, beautiful process of trying. This reminds me a little of some of Cy Twombly's drawings, with that same sense of freedom and improvisation. It's like Marden is saying that art is a conversation, a dialogue between the artist, the materials, and the world.