Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is an oil painting by Sarah Grilo. It dates from 1965 and is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
About this work
Overview
Created in 1965, this oil on canvas by Argentine artist Sarah Grilo presents a loose, map‑like arrangement of intersecting lines rendered in vivid reds, yellows and blues. The composition eschews defined borders, offering a rhythmic network that suggests both structure and improvisation, characteristic of Grilo’s abstract visual language.
Subject & Meaning
The work explores the tension between order and spontaneity through a grid of wobbly strokes that evoke cartographic forms without depicting any specific geography. By integrating elements reminiscent of everyday signage, Grilo invites viewers to consider how ordinary visual codes can be recontextualized within a purely painterly field, balancing playfulness with a contemplative tone.
Technique & Style
Executed with fluid, gestural brushwork, the painting employs thick, saturated pigments applied in a manner that allows the colors to bleed and intersect. Grilo’s handling of oil creates a lyrical abstraction, where the interplay of line and hue generates a sense of movement while maintaining a loose, almost diagrammatic structure.
History & Provenance
Since its completion, the canvas entered the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, where it remains part of the institution’s holdings of mid‑twentieth‑century Latin American art. The acquisition reflects MoMA’s ongoing effort to represent the diverse practices of artists active across Buenos Aires, Paris, New York and Madrid during that period.
Context
Grilo’s practice in the 1960s intersected with broader trends in lyrical abstraction, a movement that emphasized emotive color and gestural mark‑making. Her simultaneous engagement with grids and typographic motifs positioned her work within dialogues about the relationship between fine art and visual communication, a concern shared by many contemporaries in both Europe and the Americas.
Artist & collection
Artist
Sarah Grilo (circa 1919 – 2007) was an Argentine painter who is best known for her abstract gestural paintings.
