Windows 1970

Michael Clark made Windows with graphite on paper. It's pretty small. I'm always fascinated by the way artists choose to represent architectural spaces, especially windows, which are such charged sites of seeing and being seen, inside and outside. There’s something about the way Clark renders the shadows, the way he has caught the light, giving depth to the surface. It feels like he’s reaching for something more than pure representation. I can imagine him standing in front of this building, squinting as he moves his pencil slowly and deliberately, building up tone and texture. What kind of building is this? What kind of space is the artist looking out from, or looking in towards? I always think about how the artist is in conversation with so many other artists, thinking through similar problems, and challenging each other across time. Maybe it is like he is making a proposition for a new way of looking at something as ordinary as a window.