Untitled 1992

This is an untitled painting by Moshe Kupferman, and when I look at it, I immediately think about layers. Look at the sweeping gray marks, like a half-erased drawing, and then the brick-like marks underneath, peeking through. I imagine Kupferman building up the painting, maybe changing his mind a million times, adding and subtracting until it felt right. It reminds me a little of Cy Twombly’s work, with that same sense of searching and vulnerability. There’s a kind of beauty in that process, in letting the history of the painting show through. The drips at the bottom, the scribbled writing – it all feels so raw and immediate. It’s like he’s saying, “Here’s the painting, with all its imperfections and hesitations.” And that, to me, is what makes it so compelling.