Preface c. 1970

Ilya Kabakov made this piece, "Preface," using ink on paper. Look how the figure is rendered with such economical lines! It’s a dance between what's there and what's left unsaid, very process-oriented in its conception. There’s a starkness to the colors, right? The limited palette amplifies the rawness of the ink. It feels almost like a blueprint, exposing the underbelly of form. Notice the way the black ink wobbles around the nude form of the figure – it's imperfect, human, but the black outlines are so assertive, they give the form a strange kind of power. The relationship between the figure and the showerhead above is a little absurd, too. I'm reminded of Philip Guston’s simplified forms and his way of rendering mundane objects with a kind of cartoonish gravity. Ultimately, it's the unresolved tension that makes this piece so compelling. It invites endless readings.