Haeres 1977

Genevieve Asse made this beautiful, contemplative work with paint and paper. You can imagine how she might have begun, with a big, deep breath, applying thin layers of dreamy blue, shifting and emerging through gentle variation. I really sympathize with her; I can imagine what it might have been like to create the work, maybe thinking about the sky at twilight and the subtle variations in color. This piece feels like a kind of devotional object, it's so simple. The way the blue subtly graduates and lightens suggests both depth and an ethereal, almost otherworldly quality. That vertical line divides and connects at the same time, like a reminder that everything is relational. It makes me think about Agnes Martin, and the way she used very few marks to convey so much feeling. Ultimately, artists like Asse and Martin have been in an ongoing conversation across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. It embraces ambiguity and uncertainty and that allows for multiple interpretations.