#10 2011

Brice Marden made #10 with wax and pigment, and right away what grabs me is the way he builds up the surface, like he’s searching for something in the layering. It's like he's not just applying color but excavating it. The grey-blue panel on the left, the buttery yellow swatch in the top corner, and that big field of white – it's all so considered. The way he lets the pigment show through in these blotchy splatters almost feels like an admission of uncertainty. Look closely, and you can see the history of the making, all those marks building up to a kind of quiet, unresolved tension. It reminds me a little of some of Agnes Martin's quieter pieces. Marden and Martin both understand that art is often about what you leave out, the spaces you create for the viewer to wander and wonder.