Untitled

Brice Marden

1971

A spare work in oil and pencil on paper in which Marden fills a large central rectangle with a deep, rigorously even dark tone and faint vertical scoring to investigate concentration, material surface, and the rhythm of repetition.

At first glance you see a broad blackish rectangle floating in a wide white margin, but the eye is held by the delicate, evenly spaced vertical lines and the chalky, slightly uneven surface that reveal the hand behind the reduction.

Part of Marden’s move from gestural painting to pared‑down monochrome fields, this work reframes drawing as a meditation on texture, line, and seriality and helped expand minimalism’s interest in subtle surface and process.

Palette

Art Terms

Abstraction Drawing Minimalism Monochrome Oil paint Pencil

Exhibitions

American Drawings and Watercolors: A Selection from the Collection

1969

Selections from the Permanent Collection: Drawings

1984

A Century of Modern Drawing, 1881–1981

1982

Henri Matisse

1931