Barcelona 7 1989

Larry Bell made 'Barcelona 7' with an airbrush, and what’s cool about the airbrush is it lets you build up these soft, gradated tones, almost like a photograph in reverse. The piece is all about surface. Look at how the gray paint kind of floats on the canvas, it's neither here nor there. It’s so subtle, but each stripe has its own personality, like it's breathing in and out. I keep thinking about the way light shifts and changes, how it never really settles in one place. Notice too, how the transition in each stripe is slightly different. Bell is really interested in the Minimalist’s game: is it a painting, or an object? You might think about Agnes Martin here, though she went for all-over colour and fine lines, but it's like they’re both asking us: can art be quiet? Can it just be? There’s not one correct answer, of course, and that's the fun of it.