Adriatic 1973

Brice Marden made this dark diptych, Adriatic, by layering thin washes of pigment suspended in wax. Imagine Marden in the studio, carefully mixing subtle variations of tone, coaxing the paint across the surface. It’s almost like he’s trying to capture the essence of water, of deep pools of color. He must have been thinking about the sea and the sky. I can feel the quiet intensity of his focus, the slow accumulation of layers building toward a shimmering, almost meditative surface. Look at the way the upper and lower registers play off each other. He’s walking a tightrope between subtle variation and complete uniformity, inviting us to contemplate the nuances of tone and texture. It's a dance between control and letting go. It makes me think about Agnes Martin's grids and Barnett Newman’s zips. These artists create these expansive fields of color that swallow you whole. They create a space where you lose yourself in the act of looking, and you find something new every time you come back.