Study II

Brice Marden

1981

An oil-and-pencil-on-paper study in which Brice Marden arranges tall, rectilinear color bands to probe subtle relations of hue, edge, and surface.

The sheet reads as a row of roughly brushed vertical panels—wine red, olive, muted brick, deep green, bright yellow and charcoal—interrupted by a narrow deep-blue bar across the top, while torn paper edges and visible brush texture keep the geometry feeling handmade and quietly tense.

This work sits between Minimalism and lyrical abstraction, demonstrating Marden’s influential move to combine spare, grid-like structures with delicate, painterly surfaces to renew how color and edge produce meditative experience.

Palette

Art Terms

Minimalism Abstraction Geometric abstraction Color Field painting Oil paint Pencil Drawing

Exhibitions

A Century of Modern Drawing, 1881–1981

1982

Selections from the Permanent Collection: Drawings

1984

Fruit and Flower Paintings

1933

American Drawings and Watercolors: A Selection from the Collection

1969