Untitled 1999

Moon Pil Shim made this Untitled piece and whatever materials were to hand, looks like. The repetitive lines, pulled across the surface remind me that artmaking is a process, a doing, not just an image. The materiality of this work is so present. The dark red pigment is thick, troweled on, almost like plaster, so you can really feel the weight of it. Then, that small splash of bright red in the corner? It feels like a punctuation mark. On the right, the paint seems more sparse, lines drawn back to reveal the canvas, almost a shadow of the dark red. I’m thinking about Agnes Martin, how she also uses repetition and subtle variation to create these fields of quiet intensity. Both artists are showing us that limitations can lead to something expansive and open. It’s like they’re both whispering, “Look closer, there’s more here than you think."