Matter of Identity III - The Trace 1979

Bernard Cohen’s "Matter of Identity III - The Trace" is a total trip, a chromatic frenzy made up of signs, symbols, and geometries, like a painterly language yet to be decoded. The color palette, oh man, it’s like a clash of high and low notes, all colliding in this totally exciting, visually arresting symphony. Looking closely, you see the texture isn’t just paint on canvas; it's this record of layering, erasure, and correction. There are thin washes, like ghostly apparitions, existing beside thick, impastoed gestures. Follow the trajectory of any single mark – say, that scribble of green near the center, echoing some cartoonish monster – and you get a sense of how the whole thing evolved, each decision answering the last. Cohen is working in the wake of so many other artists who embraced the freedom of pure gesture, but for me, this calls to mind the work of someone like Terry Winters, but with an added layer of chaos. To be sure, the painting embraces uncertainty, offering not answers, but the ongoing possibility of meaning.