Untitled 1982

Moshe Kupferman made this painting with oil on canvas, and what strikes me is the process of building and obscuring, or maybe it’s like, excavating. I love how Kupferman’s muted palette creates a sense of depth and mystery. Look at the horizontal strokes of grey, mauve and green; they're not quite solid, are they? The texture is so interesting - it's almost like he's scraping away layers of paint, revealing hints of what lies beneath. It’s like a memory fading, or maybe a story being told and retold, each time slightly different. Notice that dark, smudgy area near the top, it’s like a cloud or a shadow, and it creates a focal point that draws you into the painting's depths. This piece reminds me a little of Agnes Martin, in its quietness, but it also has this really unique voice. Kupferman’s paintings invite us to embrace the ambiguity, and to find beauty in the incomplete.