Elizabeth Gilfilen: De-defining the gesture
about 4 months ago (12/16/2023)
Elizabeth Gilfilen: De-defining the gesture – Two Coats of Paint Elizabeth Gilfilen, Territory 1, 2023, oil on canvas, 48 x 40 inches Contributed by Vittorio Colaizzi / “I vehemently reject the claim that mark making by itself harbors any potential.” This was Isabelle Graw in conversation in 2010 with Achim Hochdörfer . The previous year, the latter had published his essay, “A Hidden Reserve” , chronicling a persistent but transformed and inquisitive use of the gesture by artists such as Joan Snyder and Simon Hantaï , after the myth of its unrestricted access to the inner self had been thoroughly critiqued by virtue of the encaustic and enamel regimentations of Jasper Johns and Frank Stella . It is not certain, however, whether mark-making can ever be “by itself,” as Graw puts it.