Painting #92131 1992

Rudolf de Crignis made this artwork, Painting #92131, using graphite on paper. It's a drawing, a square inside a rectangle and it makes me think of the work of Agnes Martin, who was on a similar mission to distill the very essence of painting. It might seem simple, but it’s complex. I like the way that it is clearly drawn with a pencil, and how the artist has brought the surface alive in a sort of regular all over way, a grid not with lines but with texture. The work's beauty lies in the subtle gradations and textures created by the graphite. It’s quiet yet kind of intense, like a whisper that demands your full attention. I imagine the artist, de Crignis, patiently building up the surface, lost in thought.