15.01.17 2017

Andrzej Nowacki made this artwork, '15.01.17', which looks like a painting with precision and exactitude. It's hard to know what year it was made, given the title is simply a date. I'm curious about the act of painting those straight lines, and the patience it must have taken. What kind of tape did Nowacki use? How did he make sure the space between each line was consistent? And what about the colors? It's a limited palette, but somehow the geometric forms feel like they're bending and folding into space. I bet Nowacki had to stand back and squint a lot, making minor adjustments, maybe even changing colors to keep the whole thing in balance. I feel like Nowacki is in conversation with artists like Agnes Martin and Sol LeWitt, but also maybe the Op Art movement. I admire artists who set up these kinds of rules for themselves! In art, limitations can be generative and lead to unexpected discoveries.