Perspective Correction - My Studio II, 3: Square with Cross on Floor 1969

Jan Dibbets made this photograph, "Perspective Correction - My Studio II, 3: Square with Cross on Floor", in his studio using photography. It's a stark, black and white image, mostly grays, and your eyes are immediately drawn to the square with a cross on the floor. I wonder, what was Dibbets thinking? Like he's saying, "Wait a minute, what is space, really? How do we see? What's real and what's not?" He’s not just documenting a room; he’s playing with perception, like a magician doing a trick but with serious intent. The square seems so intentionally placed, a kind of anchor in this otherwise sparse scene. I can see the windows but they are lightened out, almost like the potential for painting, waiting for something to arrive and happen. It’s like he's in conversation with artists like Mondrian, who also tried to break down reality into its basic forms. But instead of paint, Dibbets uses the camera, almost like a painter uses a brush, pushing the boundaries of what his medium can do. For me, it’s this constant questioning, the “what if?” that makes art alive.