Milk 1971

This is Adriana Maraz’s ‘Milk’, a print, and you can see how the making is part of the meaning. The bag, knotted at the top, the rough texture, it’s all there in the making. The black ink oozes out and soaks in, and it’s not trying to be a perfect image, it’s more like a feeling. A feeling of weight, of something lumpy and a bit sad, but also solid. The mark of the ink, the way it spreads and settles, tells a story of pressure and release. It reminds me of Guston's later work, the way he embraced the clunkiness of paint to get at something real. Looking at the tie at the top of the bag, it’s almost elegant, a little highlight in a sea of darkness. And it gets you thinking, art is about taking something ordinary and making it extraordinary, isn’t it?