Untitled 1970

Nasreen Mohamedi made this untitled drawing with ink on paper; it's one of those pieces where the process is so clear. Look at the repeated horizontal lines, and then these tiny, angled strokes that seem to respond to them, like a conversation. The paper is cream, almost yellow, and you can see the texture, the grain of it. The ink is dark, but delicate, the lines are so controlled, so precise. You can almost feel the hand moving, the pressure of the pen. There's a lightness to the whole thing, a sense of openness. I keep thinking of Agnes Martin, another artist who made these quiet, meditative works on paper. Both artists seem interested in something very subtle, like the difference between seeing and feeling, and that place where those things almost become the same. It’s about ambiguity, not having all the answers.