Untitled (Stoffbild) 1969

Blinky Palermo made this "Stoffbild," or fabric picture, with dyed cloth, probably sometime in the late sixties or early seventies. It’s almost ridiculously simple: two rectangles, one blue, one aqua. They feel so precise, so industrially perfect, that the seams could be read as painted lines. But when you spend a little time with it, you see the tiny imperfections and irregularities in the dye and the weave of the fabric. And that horizon line isn’t really as precise as it first seemed. These small shifts bring the piece alive. It reminds me of Agnes Martin, who made all those grids and lines, but then in the end, they’re totally wobbly and human. Both artists find ways to make something that looks so removed from the hand into something really sensitive and felt. It’s not about getting it “right”, you know? It’s about the feeling the colors give you, and the feeling of the making.