Painting #93040 1993

Rudolf de Crignis, painted this dark square, which he calls Painting #93040. I am thinking of the hours spent, maybe days even, in the studio meticulously crafting this surface. Did he want us to feel the dark? Was he thinking about Reinhardt or Malevich? Maybe not, but it’s hard not to conjure up those artists when faced with such an object. This painting is like a dark mirror, inviting us to look deeply, perhaps more at ourselves than the painting itself. There's a curious relationship here, a kind of dare. As an artist, I am drawn to this kind of quiet. Painting can be like a monastic practice, a space for contemplation and meditation, where simplicity becomes the ultimate sophistication.