Censorship (Reductivism revisited) 2013

Alfred Freddy Krupa made this small painting, Censorship (Reductivism revisited), using ink on paper, and right away I’m seeing the act of painting as a kind of direct mark-making. There’s this lovely contrast between the scratchy lines of the bare trees and these assertive black rectangles. I imagine the artist making those lines, decisive and quick, really feeling the grain of the paper. Those black bars, though, they’re not quite solid, are they? You can see the brushstrokes, the texture of the ink, it's really physical. Think about that long horizontal line in the center of the image. It blocks your view, right? But it also creates this new way of seeing, forcing you to consider what’s hidden, what’s been taken away. It reminds me of some of the work of Dorothea Rockburne, the way she uses geometry to play with space and perception. Art isn’t about giving you answers; it’s about opening up questions.