Two Part Drawing for Herb & Dorothy 1980

This is ‘Two Part Drawing for Herb & Dorothy’ by Richard Nonas, a two-part drawing of two joined sheets. Nonas uses black paint to make what looks like two massive monolithic forms that hover above the paper. The paint is applied thickly, with a visible texture that suggests a brush dragged slowly across the surface. Look at the bottom edge of the larger form, you can see that the brushstrokes aren't perfect. This little slip reveals the hand of the artist. It is tempting to see Nonas’s forms as an urban landscape or architectural diagrams. The artist creates structures that resist a singular interpretation. The narrow right-hand form acts as a counterweight to the larger mass on the left. It prevents the image from feeling too heavy, allowing the eye to travel across the entire surface. There is a strange combination of the monumental and the intimate. Nonas’s work reminds me of the drawings of Brice Marden. Both of these artists use simple forms to explore the complexities of perception. I like that.