Untitled (After Joan Miró) 1985

Sherrie Levine made this Untitled (After Joan Miró) with watercolor, a notoriously difficult medium to control! It's all about process, letting the water and pigment do their thing and accepting the unexpected. The colors are soft, almost like a memory. The yellow background washes gently around the shapes, making them feel like they're floating. Look at the large blue circle; it’s not a perfect circle, is it? You can see the different layers of pigment, the way the water pooled and dried. It's transparent, so you see the paper underneath. The way Levine uses the water creates a soft, dreamlike quality. It reminds me a bit of Agnes Martin's work, where the grid is barely there. What does it mean to copy another artist's work? Is it flattery? Theft? A conversation? Levine’s work makes us think about those questions, and about how we see and value art.