Untitled 1997

Moshe Kupferman made this untitled work using pencil and paint on paper. The muted palette of grays and blues creates a serene, almost melancholic atmosphere. I’m drawn to the grid structure overlaid with these looping lines. It's like he’s mapped out a system, and then deliberately disrupted it with these spontaneous gestures. There's a tension there, between control and freedom, that feels really alive. Up close, you can see how the pencil lines vary in weight and intensity. In places, the paint is thin and watery, allowing the paper to show through. In others, it’s built up in thicker layers, creating subtle variations in texture. Look at that looping line in the upper part, it seems to hover, weightless, above the rigid grid. It's a delicate balance of form and formlessness. Kupferman's work reminds me a bit of Agnes Martin’s, in its quiet intensity and meditative quality. But where Martin is all about precision, Kupferman embraces imperfection and the beauty of the hand-made mark. He shows us that art isn't about answers, it's about the questions we ask along the way.