Lot Essay
Historically Brice Marden is catagorized in the realm of Minimalism, which includes artists such as Carl Andre, Donald Judd and Robert Ryman. From early in his career, Marden has insisted that his works are not cool and insensitive objects, but highly charged and emotional paintings. For Marden, painting is not mechanical, mathmatical, nor soley focused on process. Instead, he explains, "The paintings are made in a highly subjective state within Spartan limitations. Within these strict confines, confines which I have painted myself into and intend to explore with no regrets, I try to give the viewer something to which he will react subjectively. I believe these are highly emotional, not to be admired for any technical or intellectual reason, but to be felt" (N. Serota, Brice Marden, London 1981, p.46).
While his typically reductive process and product appear to be vastly minimal and dramatically distant from the work of the painters of previous generations, Marden has acknowledged his debt to Manet, Goya Zurbaran and Velazquez--the masters of the use of black in the history of Western painting--and the tradition of the Abstract Expressionists, especially Rothko and Kline.
Marden's technique was further inspired by an exhibition by Jasper Johns in 1963. He sought to explore the nature of painting by focusing on the essence of surface, texture and color value. Beginning in 1964, Marden added wax to oil and worked the warm pigment with a spatula and palette knife before it cooled and the result is a subtle surface texture that records the process of painting and emphasizes the canvas as a planar surface. The artist has stated "When I'm working with the spatula, I'm actually drawing. If you just smooth off all the brushstokes, it doesn't look right" (Village Voice, March 24, 1975, p. 94). In addition to the finely textured surface, each of the canvases had a narrow ruled-off strip at the bottom edge which was unpainted but crossed by drips of the applied pigment. Influenced by the unpainted bottom edge of Jasper Johns' early work, Marden employed this strip to remind the viewer of the two dimensional surface of the canvas as well as the process of the initial application of the warm pigment by brush.
The paintings of the 1960s were monotonal in color, employing muted and somber shades of grey (perhaps another of Johns' influences), brown and earthen tones. Marden used such colors exclusively until the early 1970s and sought neutral tones that would portray "color losing identities, becoming color." He worked mostly on tones of grey since "greys move around within themselves as they tend toward other colors" (Arts Magazine, May 1967, no. 7, pp.46-50). The multiple coats of pigment produced a matte-like, opaque tone that appears to absorb light rather than reflect it. The overall result is a palette of colors which is harmonious to the eye but impossible to name.
Study, 1966-1969 posesses these subtle greys and earthtones resulting in a surface of the most calming and soothing mood. The work is comprised of two panels of identical dimension, undoubtedly influenced by the geometrical, multipanel works of Ellsworth Kelly. This division of surface may also be attributed to Marden's looking at grid-style paintings like White Numbers, 1959 (Collection of Victor and Sally Ganz, New York) by Jasper Johns. The raw, scattered paint line of the lower edge of the left panel leaves the quintesential open border representational of Marden's paintings of the mid 1960s. This scattered void is met by a warm, deep gray of oil paint and wax. As Marden developed his grey vocabulary of ambiguities earlier in his career he he began to be disturbed by the reflection that emanated from his varnished, oil-painted surfaces. He wanted resistance but not interference; he wanted to rid his paintings of the shininess that partially obstructed the visibility of the color. Unlike the harder and more transparent medium of encaustic (employed by Johns), which is bound by wax, Marden's mixture was bound by the oil. (K. Kertess, Brice Marden Paintings and Drawings, New York 1992, p. 15)
Study, 1966-1969 encompasses Marden's most important and desirable attributes as a painter. Having been painted over a period of three years, it reflects the raw texture and feeling of experiment felt typically in his works from 1966, the softly combined hues of two joined panels (typically executed in his works after 1966), and the calmingly warm aura conveyed in his most mature paintings of 1969. These qualities, in addition to its intimate scale, make Study an incredible example of the artist's work and a masterpiece in the spectrum of minimalism.
While his typically reductive process and product appear to be vastly minimal and dramatically distant from the work of the painters of previous generations, Marden has acknowledged his debt to Manet, Goya Zurbaran and Velazquez--the masters of the use of black in the history of Western painting--and the tradition of the Abstract Expressionists, especially Rothko and Kline.
Marden's technique was further inspired by an exhibition by Jasper Johns in 1963. He sought to explore the nature of painting by focusing on the essence of surface, texture and color value. Beginning in 1964, Marden added wax to oil and worked the warm pigment with a spatula and palette knife before it cooled and the result is a subtle surface texture that records the process of painting and emphasizes the canvas as a planar surface. The artist has stated "When I'm working with the spatula, I'm actually drawing. If you just smooth off all the brushstokes, it doesn't look right" (Village Voice, March 24, 1975, p. 94). In addition to the finely textured surface, each of the canvases had a narrow ruled-off strip at the bottom edge which was unpainted but crossed by drips of the applied pigment. Influenced by the unpainted bottom edge of Jasper Johns' early work, Marden employed this strip to remind the viewer of the two dimensional surface of the canvas as well as the process of the initial application of the warm pigment by brush.
The paintings of the 1960s were monotonal in color, employing muted and somber shades of grey (perhaps another of Johns' influences), brown and earthen tones. Marden used such colors exclusively until the early 1970s and sought neutral tones that would portray "color losing identities, becoming color." He worked mostly on tones of grey since "greys move around within themselves as they tend toward other colors" (Arts Magazine, May 1967, no. 7, pp.46-50). The multiple coats of pigment produced a matte-like, opaque tone that appears to absorb light rather than reflect it. The overall result is a palette of colors which is harmonious to the eye but impossible to name.
Study, 1966-1969 posesses these subtle greys and earthtones resulting in a surface of the most calming and soothing mood. The work is comprised of two panels of identical dimension, undoubtedly influenced by the geometrical, multipanel works of Ellsworth Kelly. This division of surface may also be attributed to Marden's looking at grid-style paintings like White Numbers, 1959 (Collection of Victor and Sally Ganz, New York) by Jasper Johns. The raw, scattered paint line of the lower edge of the left panel leaves the quintesential open border representational of Marden's paintings of the mid 1960s. This scattered void is met by a warm, deep gray of oil paint and wax. As Marden developed his grey vocabulary of ambiguities earlier in his career he he began to be disturbed by the reflection that emanated from his varnished, oil-painted surfaces. He wanted resistance but not interference; he wanted to rid his paintings of the shininess that partially obstructed the visibility of the color. Unlike the harder and more transparent medium of encaustic (employed by Johns), which is bound by wax, Marden's mixture was bound by the oil. (K. Kertess, Brice Marden Paintings and Drawings, New York 1992, p. 15)
Study, 1966-1969 encompasses Marden's most important and desirable attributes as a painter. Having been painted over a period of three years, it reflects the raw texture and feeling of experiment felt typically in his works from 1966, the softly combined hues of two joined panels (typically executed in his works after 1966), and the calmingly warm aura conveyed in his most mature paintings of 1969. These qualities, in addition to its intimate scale, make Study an incredible example of the artist's work and a masterpiece in the spectrum of minimalism.