COVER: David Hammons / Art in America / February 2012

David Hammons, Untitled, 2010, mixed mediums, 64 x 46 inches.
Photo by Tom Powel Imaging. Appears courtesy of L&M Arts, New York.

Provisional Painting 2: To Rest Lightly On The Earth
Article by Raphael Rubinstein

In a sequel to his 2009 article "Provisional Painting," the author reflects, via artists named and unnamed, on the lure of the unfinished and the uses of doubt.

Excerpt:

Provisional paintings can show signs of struggle and can also look "too easy." In the case of easy-looking provisionality, we encounter a paradox: the struggle with the problematics of painting results in a painting that shows no signs of struggle in the sense that the finished piece displays a minimum amount of work (Michael Krebber, for instance). But in other cases we can see the record of the artist's struggles, though not necessarily accompanied by Giacometti-style anguish (Raoul De Keyser). But whether it looks easy or arduous, the provisional work is always opposed to the monumental, the official, the permanent. It closes the door on the era of the high-production-value art market (Hirst-Koons-Murakami-Currin). It wants to hover at the edge of nonexistence. It wants to rest lightly on the earth.

 Pick up a copy of Art in America's February 2012 issue
or read article online here.