Katharina Grosse

In a matrix of crossed lines, each diagonal bar of color in this painting reveals striations left by the hairs of the paintbrush as it was pressed along the canvas surface. The painting is characteristic of Grosse’s ongoing exploration of the properties of color, especially the extent to which certain colors remain visible beneath others of greater or lesser intensity and applied in different densities. There are no formal distinctions between center and edge, and the closer the viewer looks the harder it is to detect the exact relation between surface and subsurface, figure and ground. The stripes seem to extend off the edges of the canvas, as though the composition was a small selection from a larger pattern. To achieve this effect, Grosse spread the liquid paint in free, dynamic movements, running her brush off the sides of the canvas to imply the continuation of both the line and the painting itself.