Blenheim 1972

This is Leonard Lehrer’s “Blenheim,” and what grabs me is how Lehrer made it seem less like an observation and more like an act of construction. Look at how he builds up the image, creating texture and form with these tiny marks, a bit like stippling. It's a very controlled approach, but within that control, there's a real sense of touch and patience. It’s a testament to the labor of art, and it’s like he’s building the whole landscape mark by mark. I’m thinking particularly about the hedge on the right, that dense collection of tiny marks. If you look closely, you can see that each mark is deliberate. Lehrer is not trying to hide the labor involved in creating the image. And the light… it’s the light that pulls you in. There’s a very similar sensibility to someone like Agnes Martin, where the whole image is constructed from tiny gestures.