Matter of Identity III - The Trace 1979

Bernard Cohen made this painting, Matter of Identity III - The Trace, with layers of marks and forms that remind me of printed fabrics, stencils, or even digital layers. Just imagine him in the studio, each shape a decision, a correction, a question. I can see him stepping back, squinting, adding, scraping, and building this all-over composition. There's something incredibly generous about the amount of detail, color, and incident, like he’s inviting us to look closer, to get lost in the labyrinth of his mind. That one red rectangle punches through all the activity, holding its own against the riot. It’s almost defiant, like a full stop in a long sentence, and makes me think about the legacy of hard-edge painting. But, of course, this piece shares the same DNA with other artists who layer information and gesture, like maybe Cy Twombly. The whole thing feels like a conversation across time.