Untitled 2019

Thomas Riesner made this untitled painting with ink on paper. It’s a small artwork, only 20 by 25 cm – so already, I’m thinking about intimacy and immediacy. The dominant marks are drippy, and black, with a touch of red and blue, punctuated by those staring eyes! I imagine Riesner working quickly, intuitively, letting the ink splatter and pool, embracing the accidents and imperfections. I get the sense of the artist being in direct conversation with the materials, a back and forth, as the image emerges through trial, error, and intuition. There’s a raw, almost childlike quality to the drawing, reminding me a bit of outsider art, or the spontaneous gestures of Cy Twombly. I think the painting offers a different way of seeing, of experiencing the world. It reminds us that painting is an ongoing conversation, an exchange of ideas across time.