Marcia Hafif: The Inventory: Painting

Book Synopsis: The Series: The Inventory is a listing by series of works in the order in which they appeared. One series followed another at approximately two-year intervals, in an idiosyncratic order, building a project of examining the methods and materials of Western Painting in the form of works of art. In 1972, in order to start at the beginning, I covered a vertical sheet of drawing paper with vertical pencil marks starting from the top left and ending at the bottom right, each drawing developing in a slightly different way leading to unexpected patterns within the same procedure. I turned to paint, acrylic at first, presenting a palette of seventeen colors on seventeen canvases, then oil in An Extended Gray Scale, 106 canvases graduated from white to black. About this time I was lent Max Doerner's book, The materials of the Artist and their Use in Painting, that led me to experiment. I bought every color in powdered pigment that I could find then used a glass muller to grind them one by one into linseed oil making my own paint. Each color was painted on a prepared canvas stretched on a ready-made wooden stretcher, each element referring to Painting. Wall Painting came next, then grayed colors, the color of "the most beautiful black," and the color of skin in European painting each displaying some technique such as egg tempera, encaustic, watercolor, glaze or scumble.

About Hanging: I do not make paintings so much as I make installations. Each series has its inherent way of hanging though it is difficult to make firm rules. In each case - with one work or many - I look for the way the painting(s) will join with the wall to unite the space. Every location is different, high ceiling or low, long or short walls, with different windows, light sources, doors or obstructions. I use a center height running through the works in one space, one that will be not too high for viewing and with approximately the same distance, where possible, between ceiling and floor.

Titles: Every piece in The Inventory is related to every other. Titles include the series, the name, the size, and often the date and place of making, as in The Inventory: Mass Tone Painting: Viridian, o/c, 72 x 68", New York, 1974.