Tingari Cycle at Marruwa 2007

Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri made this painting, Tingari Cycle at Marruwa, with acrylic on canvas. Check out the palette – mostly browns and tans. You get the sense he's really interested in the push and pull of colors on a surface. There's a real material quality to the piece, it is really all about texture and the touch of the artist. I love the way the forms repeat in a grid like structure. The slightly irregular shapes of the rectangles show that they are carefully hand painted, not printed. Look at how the lines have slight imperfections and variations. I think of this painting as an example of seeing the world in a new way, and a testament to art as an ongoing conversation. This piece reminds me of Agnes Martin's grids, and how she uses line to find harmony and balance, it has something of that same feel. Art is never really finished; it just keeps changing as it passes from one person to the next.