Untitled n. 3 1999

Bracha Ettinger made this untitled work with paint, probably oil, and maybe collage. It's all about process. I see a grid, not perfect, but there. And through the grid, layers of color and texture peek. The surface is built up, scraped away, maybe even collaged. Look closely, and you see how the weave of the canvas fights with the grid. Ettinger isn’t trying to hide the struggle; she’s embracing it. It’s like she's saying, "Here's the structure, but here's also all the messy, beautiful stuff that happens within it." There’s this one stroke, a sort of reddish-purple arc near the top, that feels so vulnerable and exposed. It's like a question mark hanging in the air. This reminds me a little of Agnes Martin, but if Agnes Martin let her hair down, got a little wilder. Ettinger reminds us that art isn’t about answers, but about creating a space for feeling and questioning.