Painting #91019 1991

Rudolf de Crignis made this artwork, Painting #91019, with graphite on paper. The beauty in this piece, for me, is in the quietness of the graphite strokes. Just imagine Crignis, in the studio, with a pencil in hand, gently layering these horizontal lines with the faintest of grey. There's a repetitive, meditative quality here. Maybe Crignis was thinking about Agnes Martin, about the subtlety of monochrome, and the challenge of making a painting so reduced, it's almost nothing. It's as if he's whispering, "What is the minimum I can do to make a world?" Those vertical lines marking out the grid, probably made with a ruler. A nod to structure, perhaps. Think of Sol LeWitt and his wall drawings, where the idea is more important than the execution. I think Crignis wanted to make something that hovered between the geometric and the atmospheric. Like a weather system.