Jason Martin creates sensual, almost three-dimensional painterly compositions built up from a rich layer of color in a single hue. His most accomplished paintings are often the result of a single, masterful brushstroke—as is the case with the present work. To achieve the perfect stroke, Jason Martin paints with an extremely wide brush; it is impossible to adjust or correct the gesture afterward.

The interplay between the incoming light and the modeled surface generates reflections—a spectrum of color—which in turn introduces a three-dimensional element into this monochrome painting. Martin explains his work in an interview: “I want my work to have the authority of a sculpture, but the revelation of a painting” (Jason Martin, quoted in Allan Woods’ interview, “Jason Martin. Interview,” in Transcript, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 44–45).

Martin is devoted to Abstract Expressionism and is also influenced by Minimalism and calligraphy, with a clear focus on the painterly process and the intensely expressive gesture that runs throughout his work. His paintings seem to exist at the boundary between painting and wall-based sculpture, with references to both cultural and scientific knowledge.