Bands, Bars and Washes
Marks laid side by side until they build a surface. The twenty-five works in this room are bands, bars and washes: stripes of color stacked or crossed, blocks set in rows, grids drawn over soft fields. No faces, no figures. The Abstract series has no per-work dates, so the room follows the title numbers.
Two kinds of mark do most of the work. One is a broad vertical stroke, dragged down the square and left to drip, so that a picture is a row of poles or a curtain of color. The other is a thin straight line, drawn across or diagonally over the strokes, so that the surface becomes a plaid, a ladder or a grid.
Behind nearly every set of bars is a soft field of color, grey, pink, maroon or cream, and the bars sit on it like rain on a window.
Loops, Plaids and Diagonals
The first four numbers. Thick loops inside a square, a speckled field, a plaid of thin lines, and diagonals crossing a blotched ground.
Abstract #01
A square of pink and yellow on orange, and inside it thick loops of green and yellow drawn in rectangles, with thin lines of pink, white and purple running over them. The loops circle a dark center like a knot. The ground around the square is flat orange, and the pink inside it is soft and cloudy. It is the first of the Abstract works by number, and the only one in the room with a shape at its center.
Abstract #02
A field of speckles in yellow-green, pink, blue and gold, with thin vertical lines rising through it like stems, and a band of magenta across the lower edge.
Abstract #03
A plaid of thin blue, green and yellow lines over purple, with thick orange and yellow brush strokes laid across it at the left and lower center, and pink at the right edge.
Abstract #04
Diagonal lines in red, green, blue and yellow cross the square from both corners over a ground of soft blotches in teal, grey and pink. A dark hairy cross sits at the upper left, and bunches of orange, blue and navy strokes lie scattered over the lines. It is the room's busiest surface, with four layers: the blotches, the thin diagonals, the thick strokes, and the hairy marks on top.
Curtains and Washes
Numbers six to sixteen. Vertical strokes dragged down the square, soft washes behind them, and grids and bars drawn over.
Abstract #06
Dense colored dabs in blue, magenta, yellow and green, with dark bristly streaks running down through them like trunks.
Abstract #07
Black lace of scribble over soft pink, yellow, mauve and olive, with thin horizontal lines through it.
Abstract #09
Pale vertical bars in grey, tan and lilac, washed thin, with a band of orange and black across the middle like a railing seen through fog. The bars drip at their lower ends. Two dark poles stand at the left and the center, and a few thin lines are scratched into the wash at the upper right. It is the quietest picture in the room, and the first where the wash is the subject.
Abstract #10
Grey-blue bands washed over a dark ground, with small red and blue squares set along them like lights, and a pale bar at the upper right.
Abstract #11
A green and beige wash ruled with thin lines into a grid, orange drips running down from the top, and turquoise at the corners.
Abstract #12
Pink and grey vertical bands with a maroon stripe and a dark blue one, washed and splattered, with a pale blue block at the lower right.
Abstract #13
Orange and yellow blocks with magenta bands, rows of white horizontal lines across the center, drips below.
Abstract #14
Pale translucent blocks stand on maroon like windows, with yellow horizontal lines drawn across them, dashed and broken.
Abstract #15
A patchwork of soft color: turquoise, orange, red, purple and yellow blocks laid side by side and overlapping, each one translucent, with darker drips falling through them. There is no line at all. The blocks are soft at every edge, and the color builds up where they cross, so the picture is deepest at the center and palest at the edges.
Abstract #16
Pastel brush blocks in pink, yellow, lilac and olive with a purple band across the middle and white strokes laid over them.
Bars and Rungs
Numbers twenty-five to thirty-four. Dark grounds with bright vertical bars, a pale one with rungs, and plaids of stripes and dabs.
Abstract #25
A soft patchwork of yellow, mauve, orange and green with black and white line scratched over it in loops and ladders.
Abstract #26
Dark ground, and across it vertical bars of red, magenta and cyan, with a horizontal band of cyan near the bottom making a cross. The bars are brushy and bright against the dark, and they drip. A patch of pale pink hangs at the upper left like a lantern. It is the strongest contrast in the room, light bars on a near-black field.
Abstract #28
Dark ground with vertical streaks of green, magenta, blue and yellow, a black column at the center, and a hatched band of fine lines along the bottom.
Abstract #29
Pale grey bars washed down the square, with black rungs drawn across the right half like a ladder, and teal, red and yellow bars among the grey.
Abstract #30
A cream ground, and on it a red circle at the lower left, blocks of yellow, blue, purple and grey, and thin black lines drawn across in a loose grid. A second circle at the upper right is drawn in line with a yellow half. The red circle is the one large shape in the room, and everything else on the page is arranged around it.
Abstract #31
Red horizontal stripes on a pink ground, crossed by vertical bars of teal, yellow and grey, with black scratches over them.
Abstract #32
On maroon, rows of short dabs in yellow, orange, green and lilac crossing in bands, like a woven cloth.
Abstract #33
On dark olive, yellow bars and squares with a diagonal yellow band across the lower half, pink dashes in a row across the middle, and fine lines like string.
Abstract #34
Dense bars in red, teal and yellow, with rows of pink dots and white line scribbled over them in loops.
Grid and Page
Two to end the room: a black grid with splatter, and a near-empty cream page with a few shapes on it.
Abstract #39
A grey ground ruled with thick black lines into a grid, and across the grid, splatter: black bursts at the upper left and lower right, and bars of red, blue and yellow set between the lines. Where the diagonals of number four made a net of thin lines, here the lines are thick, straight and few, and the marks sit inside the cells.
Compare with #04, in this room
Abstract #49
A cream page with a few shapes on it: a pink block at the left, a green block at the lower right, a red blob and a yellow blob at the top, a grey smudge, and thin black lines drawn in a loose frame around them. Most of the page is empty. It is the sparest work in the series, and the room ends on it.
Closing
The plaid of thin lines near the start of the room and the cream page at the end, with its few blocks, were ruled by the same hand. One fills the square with lines until it is cloth. The other draws a frame and leaves the page bare.