(Kansas 1937–lives and works in Las Vegas, New Mexico)

Dune. 1986.

Acrylic on canvas.

Signed, titled and dated: MAX COLE DUNE 1986.

133 × 157 cm.

With the confirmation of authenticity by the artist, Las Vegas, April 2021. We thank Max Cole for her kind support.

Provenance:
- Galerie Schégl, Zurich.
- Purchased from the above by the present owner, since then private collection Switzerland.

With a synchrony of meticulous precision and clarity, the American artist Max Cole creates works that radiate both lightness and inner peace. Since the early 1970s, Cole's paintings and drawings, run through with fine horizontal lines, have been founded on a working principle that has hardly changed to this day. By using the colours black, white, grey and, rarely, pastel shades, the artist lays parallel horizontal stripes across the entire background of her paintings. The resulting rhythm is punctuated by regular, ultra-thin vertical hairline strokes.

Cole is often associated with Post–Constructivist, Post-Minimalist and Concrete movements because she produces her works in series. Such attributions, however, would not do justice to the effort and precision that go into her work, which in Cole's case is an existential part of the content. In "Dune", the obsessive working method with its endless line markings becomes tangible and develops an incredible radiance. Both are powerfully conveyed to the viewer.

Max Cole's paintings suggest an approach to infinity through the use of vertical, repetitive lines, a record of intense concentration, said to contain energy as embedded content. Cole describes this process which she has used for over 50 years, as meditative. Although sometimes compared to the work of Agnes Martin, the similarities between the practices are only superficial. "There is no other way to produce the work except for a depth of engagement requiring the abandonment of the self", she has explained, "and this process opens the door to infinity, enabling reach beyond the physical. For me, art must transcend the material."