Untitled 1975

Mira Schendel made this *Untitled* work with tempera on paper, and what gets me right away is the interplay of color and texture, those two crucial elements that shape our experience of artmaking as a process. The surface is a sea of teal, but look closer, and you will see constellations of sandy colored marks scattered across the picture plane. I love how Schendel builds up the surface, using these tiny marks to create depth and movement. Some are densely packed, forming concentrated clusters, while others drift off into the background. It feels like a quiet meditation, almost like a visual poem. There's an artist called Agnes Martin, who also explored subtle and repetitive marks, and you can see a kindred spirit between them, both exploring a kind of quiet, contemplative space. But while Martin is very precise and minimal, Schendel feels more intuitive and free, reminding us that art is not about fixed meanings, but about opening up space for possibility and imagination.