Micro-Painting 1968

Editor: This is Gene Davis's "Micro-Painting" from 1968, made using acrylic paint and impasto. The single purple square, with that striking dark circle, it's… intense. What do you see in this piece? Curator: The composition arrests the gaze immediately, wouldn’t you agree? Consider the rectangular support and its seemingly monochromatic field, disrupted only by that single, stark, circular void. It demands that we attend to the subtle modulations of the surface – the impasto that gives the monochrome plane depth. What do you make of its location? Editor: It’s almost centered on the bottom-right quarter, breaking up the visual space... Is that to emphasize the color somehow? Or even question the definition of painting? Curator: Precisely. One could argue the circle functions as a focal point but equally destabilizes any clear visual hierarchy. Are we meant to focus on what is present or absent? Is the monochrome field defined by its flatness, texture or negative space? And does this perhaps lead to an interrogation of the support, of what we traditionally understand as “painting”? Editor: I didn't think about the texture that much, but now that I look closer I can appreciate the subtle tonal variation across the plane. That impasto really animates it. Curator: Indeed. One can discern within the painting a series of propositions regarding the formal constituents of the medium. How would you define the success of those arguments? Editor: This makes me want to see more minimalist works and pay extra attention to the details. I am leaving with more questions, but also answers. Curator: That, I think, is the best outcome one can wish for in the face of art. I look forward to the thoughts and questions that will emerge next.