The Creation 2009

Idris Khan made this, “The Creation,” without a date, using screenprint and ink on paper. I’m thinking about the making here, the layering up of lines, a kind of obsessive accumulation… it almost looks like music, like a score. I imagine Khan in his studio, repeating the same gesture over and over, each line a little different, a little off. Like Agnes Martin, maybe he’s trying to find perfection in repetition, but also embracing the imperfections that come with the human hand. The horizontal lines create this subtle, almost hypnotic rhythm across the surface. You see the influence of Sol LeWitt and other conceptual artists in Khan’s work. But what sets Khan apart is that, for me, there’s also a real sense of poetry, a sense of longing, and a sense of human presence. All artists, consciously or unconsciously, borrow from one another, building on the ideas and experiments of those who came before, and this is how the conversation of art evolves. What will the future hold? I can't wait to find out.