Untitled 1968

Curator: Standing before us is an Untitled painting by Adnan Coker, created in 1968, using acrylic on canvas. Editor: My initial reaction is a sense of muted drama, those vertical strokes feel like rain against a grimy window. It's quite compelling in its simplicity. Curator: Coker's practice involved extensive preparation of his materials; he primed and textured his canvases to build depth within the layering of paint. His work from this period embodies matter painting, or "art informel", a rejection of geometric abstraction popular at the time. Editor: The layering you mention is definitely visible. The rough texture of the canvas and the deliberate, almost violent application of the acrylic gives a distinct tactile quality, even from a distance. Color here seems subservient to form and the sheer act of painting. Curator: Precisely. We see the traces of his movements, the pressure he exerted. Coker embraced process and material, reflecting his interest in modernist approaches to production and form. The monochromatics evoke something deeply austere. Editor: Though monochromatic, there are subtle color variations. Hints of pink and grey peek through, creating a sense of depth and preventing it from becoming entirely flat. These muted shades add complexity, softening the harsher, almost aggressive, brushstrokes. Curator: The lack of a defined subject reflects a wider postwar turn toward art as experience. There's little to "interpret" beyond the gesture and material presence. Editor: I find myself less concerned with what it represents and more intrigued by the tension between the surface quality and dynamic composition. Those thick impasto areas next to smoother washes generate movement. Curator: Ultimately, the process, the physicality, and material interaction become the artwork itself. Coker challenges what constitutes "high art" by highlighting the act of making and our own relationship with the materiality. Editor: Coker invites us to truly *see* paint. Curator: Indeed. It’s an examination of texture and material; the art *is* the matter. Editor: I appreciate how it prompts you to really consider those basic elements.