Mass Tone Painting: Alizarin Crimson, April 24, 1974

Marcia HafifWW-1974-101173

1974·Oil on canvas·96.6 × 96.6 cm (38 × 38 in.)

<p>Since the early 1970s Marcia Hafif has systematically examined the fundamentals of painting, often through complex monochrome canvases. Hafif mixes her own paint, grinding a pigment with a muller—a heavy stone or weight—and combining it with linseed oil. <em>Mass Tone Painting: Alizarin Crimson</em>, titled after the specific red-toned pigment used, is from the first series of paintings Hafif prepared in this way. She explained, “I found a beauty in the colors beyond what I had ever seen in tube paint.” Unlike commercial tube paint, her handmade paints can behave unpredictably. She chose this painstaking technique because, in her words, it “lets a color . . . express itself, reveal its multiple nuances.”</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1974
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 96.6 × 96.6 cm (38 × 38 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Marcia Hafif

Artist

Marcia Hafif

Drawing

Marcia Hafif was an American painter who developed a rigorous practice centered on monochromatic and near-monochromatic abstraction, working primarily with oils on canvas. Beginning in the 1970s, she pursued systematic investigations of color, texture, and the phenomenology of paint itself, creating works of austere formal discipline. Her paintings, often executed in barely perceptible tonal variations, demanded sustained looking and challenged conventional notions of composition and visual interest. Hafif's work engaged with post-war abstraction's legacy while resisting gestural expressionism in favor of methodical, material-focused inquiry.

Pomona, United States

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