Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is an acrylic drawing by Christopher Cozier. It dates from 2010 and is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
About this work
Overview
It combines acrylic, ink, colored pencil, and found materials such as stamped, stenciled, and solvent-transferred fragments.
Untitled is a complex drawing composed of 268 individual paper elements assembled into a single composition. It combines acrylic, ink, colored pencil, and found materials such as stamped, stenciled, and solvent-transferred fragments. The work’s layered, fragmented structure suggests a process of accumulation and decay, with edges deliberately irregular and surfaces textured through cutting and pasting.
Subject & Meaning
The composition suggests a fragmented cartographic image, with faint outlines of continents—Europe, Africa, parts of Asia—emerging through layered paper and ink. Place names are obscured, evoking the erosion of historical and colonial narratives. A dark, amorphous form below the map implies weight, absence, or collapse, reinforcing themes of displacement and the instability of geographic and cultural memory.
Technique & Style
Cozier employs a collage-based approach, layering cut and painted paper with stamped ink and solvent transfers to build surface complexity. The use of pencil and colored pencil adds subtle tonal shifts, while the rough, uneven edges of each fragment resist cohesion. This method emphasizes materiality and process, creating a visual rhythm of fragmentation that mirrors the work’s thematic concerns with impermanence and layered histories.
History & Provenance
Created in 2010, Untitled entered the collection of The Museum of Modern Art shortly after its completion. It is one of a series of works by Cozier that engage with Caribbean identity and postcolonial geography. The work’s materials and construction reflect the artist’s interest in everyday paper media and the ways historical information is archived, altered, or lost over time.
Context
The work emerges from a broader Caribbean artistic practice that interrogates colonial cartography and the legacy of imperial boundaries. Cozier’s use of torn, faded, and reassembled paper echoes the fragmented nature of cultural memory in postcolonial societies. The muted palette—gray, green, brown, with occasional blue—reflects both environmental tones and the fading of official records.
Legacy
Untitled contributes to contemporary dialogues on how maps shape identity and power. Its material fragmentation invites viewers to consider the instability of historical narratives and the labor involved in reconstructing them. The work’s inclusion in MoMA’s collection situates it within global conversations about decolonizing visual culture and redefining drawing as a medium for critical inquiry.
Artist & collection
Artist
Cristopher Cozier is a multidisciplinary, contemporary artist and cultural critic based in Trinidad.
