Floor 4: Brice Marden: South entrance from Serra
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“A painting, you know, it’s all dirty material. But it’s about transformation. Taking that earth, that heavy earthen kind of thing, turning it into air and light.”
—Marden, 1991
Brice Marden
Born 1938, Bronxville, New York; died 2023, Tivoli, New York
Brice Marden first gained recognition in the mid-1960s for monochrome paintings that drew comparisons to the minimal, geometric work of other artists of his generation, but were set apart by their sensuous surfaces and subtle colors. In the late 1980s, he traveled to South and Southeast Asia and encountered Chinese and Japanese calligraphy. These experiences, along with an engagement with Taoism and Zen Buddhism, inspired him to adopt a more gestural approach, with allover patterns of fluid lines. While always insisting on the material, two-dimensional aspects of painting, Marden also believed it had a mystical power—calling it “a sounding board for the spirit.”
Objects
3 objects in the order you'll encounter them from this entrance. Select an object to view details.
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1968
Beeswax and oil on canvas
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1995
To create the dense, matte surface of early monochrome works such as this, Marden mixed oil paint with beeswax and turpentine. He applied the medium in layers, reworking it with a spatula or palette knife. Although evidence of his hand is nowhere near as visible as it would become in the calligraphic style he developed during the 1980s (on view nearby), traces of the painting’s making remain. Notice how Marden left bare a one-inch strip of canvas along the bottom edge to preserve a record of drips and splatters.
Visual Description
A wide painting (about 5.8 ft tall by 7.5 ft wide) in beeswax and oil on canvas is organized as a stark, two-part composition split straight down the middle. The left half is a flat, dark green plane with a cool, slightly gray cast; the right half is a dark charcoal field with a purplish-brown undertone. A narrow, nearly black vertical seam separates the two panels, reflecting that the work is made of adjoining canvases and has a clear geometric division. Both color areas contain faint scuffs, small specks, and streaks embedded in the waxy paint layer. Along the very bottom edge, there is a thin line with some abrasion and tiny flecks of paint.
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1991–93
Oil on linen
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1994
As its title indicates, The Sisters can be understood as an abstract portrait of the artist’s two daughters. The apricot and burgundy ribbons may at first suggest figures, but in the next moment they dissolve into the larger field of blue, gray, and yellow lines laid over the pale yellow background. The lines graze the edges of the canvas but always remain within the frame of the picture. This playful dance of expansion and containment, spontaneity and restraint, reflects Marden’s dynamic painting process while capturing the character of his young subjects.
Visual Description
An oil-on-linen abstract painting, about 7 × 5 ft, filled edge-to-edge with looping, continuous lines over a pale yellow ground. Thick, dark brown lines curve and meander across the surface, sometimes forming large rounded enclosures and sometimes narrowing into tight bends, creating a loose framework that runs from top to bottom and repeatedly touches the edges. Interwoven with these are deep teal-blue bands—especially concentrated along the left side—snaking upward in long arcs and occasionally overlapping the brown paths. Softer, semi-opaque white lines and washes sit beneath and between the darker strokes, adding layered depth and suggesting earlier routes or underdrawing-like tracks. Bright orange and golden-yellow lines weave through the center and right side. Some passages are more translucent and the pale yellow field underneath is visible.
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1996–97
Oil on linen
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1997
In this painting, the flowing ribbons of color in The Sisters (nearby) have been transformed into more controlled, even bands that slowly meander around the surface. Marden drew inspiration from ancient Chinese epitaph tablets—carved stone memorials placed inside tombs—borrowing their square proportions and loosely basing the composition on written characters inscribed on their surfaces. Asian art and culture were important influences on Marden starting in the mid-1980s.
Visual Description
A nearly square oil-on-linen painting (about 8 × 7.8 ft) presents an abstract network of thick, continuous, looping bands that interlace across a blue-gray surface. The background is a mottled field of grayish blue with visible brushwork and faint vertical and diagonal streaks. Over this ground, two ribbon colors—deep, dark green and pale yellow—snake across the canvas in broad, rounded curves, repeatedly crossing and running alongside one another. A paler, turquoise-blue line appears beneath or alongside the darker paths, especially around the center and lower left. The lines create irregular, cell-like enclosures: a large, rounded loop occupies the lower right quadrant; a cluster of tighter loops and overlaps gathers at upper right; and a more compact set of interwoven curves sits at lower left. Near the center, the paths intersect in a loose knot of crossings, with the dark green band often appearing on top, Many of the ribbons press close to the edges and leave only small pockets of open background between their winding routes.