Robert Oh- Looking Outwards- 06

This painting is one of many paintings in Kenneth Martin’s “Chance and Order” series. As the name suggests, Martin was able to create this piece using pure chance events. Out of all the other paintings in the series, I liked this one the best because the black and white contrasts really well in terms of straight lines. I really appreciate this drawing, not only because it looks mysterious and complicated, but also because of the procedure Martin went through to make it.

The article states that to create the network of lines, Martin initially marked a blank drawing with points, moving clockwise around a rectangle. Lines were then generated by taking numbers, two at a time, at random out of a bag. Martin chose eight pairs of numbers for this work. He then turned the drawing by 90 degrees and repeated the process. After being repeated twice more, the drawing was then transferred to canvas.

Martin’s artistic and “random” side truly comes into play when you look at this painting. I am very excited and curious to see how other artists can incorporate randomness in their future art pieces.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/martin-chance-order-change-6-black-t03190