Number 11 1964

John McLaughlin made Number 11, using black and white paint on a square canvas. He's stripping everything back, to the bare bones, like Agnes Martin or Barnett Newman, but somehow it has its own flavour. Look closely, and you can see the texture, the way the brushstrokes build up the surface, like layers of thought. The black is dense and heavy, while the white feels lighter, almost ethereal, like the pause between thoughts. I see something in that central, black pillar, something almost architectural, maybe an entrance to a new way of seeing, or a window. There is so much happening in this simple, pared down painting. McLaughlin's work is about the power of reduction, about finding the essential. It reminds us that sometimes, the most profound statements are made with the fewest words, or in this case, with the fewest marks.