Micro-Painting 1968

This "Micro-Painting" was made by Gene Davis, and well, the name is a pretty good description. I mean, what is painting but putting marks down? Here, Davis has given us a tiny stage for a yellow line against a pink ground. The colour is what gets me. That pink, it is chalky, like it has been mixed with white, rubbed, scrubbed, until only the faintest trace of colour remains. And then a little line. That mark makes me think about the colour around it, as if that yellow is not just a colour, but a little jolt that activates the painting, the way one ingredient can suddenly bring a whole dish together. Davis, with his stripes, reminds me a bit of Agnes Martin. Both are interested in line, but while Martin uses line to create the most minimal grid, Davis, as seen here, uses just one, and makes you think about the whole history of painting, one tiny artwork at a time.