Unseen (Portraits, Somebodies) 1998

Bruno Jakob’s, Unseen (Portraits, Somebodies), which could have been made anytime, uses minimal materials to make a maximum statement about the nature of seeing. I love the almost-nothingness of this piece. The slight variations in tone, the gentle crumples and folds, become a landscape of subtle gestures. Jakob embraces the unpredictable qualities of his chosen media – the paper itself, maybe some water? – allowing them to dictate the image. It's like he's collaborating with chance, letting the materials speak for themselves, which is what I try to do in my own work. Look closely at the center, where there's a suggestion of a face, or maybe just the idea of a face. It's so faint, so elusive, that you can't quite grasp it. And yet, that's what makes it so compelling. It reminds me of Agnes Martin's subtle grids, or maybe even some of Robert Ryman’s all white paintings, artists who knew how to do so much with what appears to be so little. The whole artwork becomes a meditation on what it means to see, and what it means to be seen.