Paper Moon (Studio Wall at Night) 2009

Spencer Finch made this out of light, in a studio, at night. The artist is tracking something so subtle: the way light moves and changes a space. I see the window shape repeated and faded on the left-hand wall. Maybe the light has shifted from one side of the room to the other, and he’s caught it, like a firefly in a jar. I get a sense of loneliness or quietude, a kind of hushed observation. It reminds me of work by James Turrell, who is also interested in the ephemeral qualities of light and space. This act of close looking is so central to what painters do. Spencer Finch is creating a record of something fleeting and unrepeatable. It feels generous and kind somehow, this gentle attention to the unseen.