20 Part Line Painting 1991

Alan Charlton made this 20 Part Line Painting using grey paint on canvas, but when? The date is unknown! The thing about grey, it's not nothing, it's a decision. Look at the way these lines repeat, but each one is different. Each one is a gesture, a mark, a breath. I bet if you get close enough, you can see all the tiny imperfections, the little wobbles and bumps that make it human. It's not about perfection, it's about the process, the doing of it. Think about Agnes Martin, but without all the fuss! Charlton seems to be asking us what is the least, not the most, a painting can do. It is both there and not there at all, a quiet, meditative thing.