“We defined how one property of a floor is certain up with the define. We should now converse of the opposite property of a floor,
which, if I would put it this manner, is sort of a pores and skin stretched over the entire extent of the floor.”
—Alberti, De Pictura, I.4

The exhibition is particularly devoted to works from Marcia Hafif’s Acrylic Work sequence from 1972. That is the primary time the works are on view once more since they had been final pre-sented within the mid-Seventies on the gallery of Ileana Sonnabend in New York.

Shifting from Rome to New York in 1971 additionally marked the top for her earlier means of portray. Works from the years 1961–69, subsumed because the Italian Work had been characterised by bilaterally symmetrical, brightly coloured shapes. Two of those works—Nr. 52 and 56—are additionally on view within the exhibition, to make the transition from pre-70s to later works traceable.

“On January 1, 1972 I took this step eliminating the juxtaposition of colours with a view to make a portray which makes use of the strategies and supplies of conventional portray, however which was not likely a portray within the standard sense. On this means I hoped to discover a new picture, and a brand new which means for portray. It was a scenario of coming to the top of portray and but being confronted with the necessity to begin once more.”¹

Nevertheless, on the new starting of her portray, there are drawings—the sequence Pencil on Paper—brief vertical markings, beginning on the high left, working diagonally downwards to finish on the backside proper, these had been the factors of the method, the repetition of which resulted in manifold patterns. These drawings marked the beginning of the so-called Stock—her systemic exploration and deconstruction of painterly prospects, spanning 5 many years and greater than 20 sequence.

The Acrylic Work² signify the second sequence of the Stock and for the primary time, after the caesura within the œuvre,³ Marcia Hafif returned to portray. Acrylic paint on canvas—since she had it accessible in the intervening time, as she mentioned herself⁴—utilized in vertical strokes, in the identical process as within the drawings. Fourteen colours had been chosen to signify a typical palette: Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Orange, Bocour Inexperienced, Venetian Purple and Uncooked Sienna are on show within the exhibition. Every colour was utilized in vertical strokes that lined the complete entrance. Other than a border across the edges—a singular characteristic of this sequence in the complete work of Marcia Hafif. The bare canvas that these works reveal, present us already that Marcia Hafif’s work doesn’t inherently signify monochrome portray, however moderately that it’s a consequence of her strategy.

Materials, paint software, picture help, format, and set up end in an aesthetic or inner ethic. This manifests an inherent logic from which essentially emerges a set of values related to the fabric in ques-tion. Relatively than altering the fabric to swimsuit one’s wants, it’s left largely unchanged, and artwork is drawn from it. The artist works throughout the (chosen) givens of the supplies.

“I felt, nonetheless, that I used to be a painter and that portray was nonetheless what I needed to do.” (Marcia Hafif)

at Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna
till Could 6, 2023