Brice Marden: It reminds me of something, and I don’t know what it is.
This book was published on the occasion of the exhibition Brice Marden: It reminds me of something, and I don’t know what it is. at Gagosian, 980 Madison Avenue, New York. It features full-color reproductions of the new paintings and drawings exhibited, which continue the artist’s Letter series.
Marden begins the paintings by filling the canvas with script-like glyphs, working in columns from top to bottom, right to left. He then links these initial markings through a network of lines, creating webs and threads across the surface of the canvas. As he paints in layers, Marden scrapes away at excess paint on the surface of the canvas, diffusing his lines and allowing a complex play of color, weight, and distance.
The publication includes a new essay by John Elderfield, in which the curator and art historian discusses the new works in the contexts of modernist painting and Marden’s oeuvre, and investigates the allusions the works seem to make.