R73-6 1973

This is "R73-6" by Johannes Jan Schoonhoven, and it looks like it was built rather than painted. I'm looking at this grid, this ordered pattern, and I'm picturing Schoonhoven in his studio, maybe he was thinking about the seriality of the everyday, or the clean lines of modern architecture. The paint looks pretty smooth and unworked, right? I see the surface is almost like a manufactured object. The off-white colour gives it a kind of ghostly, minimalist vibe. I can almost feel the artist's hand in the repetition of these forms. It's like he's trying to find a balance between order and imperfection. There's something really human in that struggle, you know? It reminds me a little of Agnes Martin’s grids, but with a more industrial feel. It makes you consider what is painting anyway? Artists are always riffing off each other, it’s an ongoing conversation. The beauty of painting is that it’s never really finished, it's always open to interpretation, like an unfolding question.