Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is a drawing by Ulises Carrión. It dates from 1976 and is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
About this work
Overview
The piece avoids traditional media like paint, instead using the physical act of cutting and arranging paper to generate meaning.
Created in 1976, this work by Ulises Carrión is a small-scale drawing composed of cut and pasted paper on standard A4 paper. It belongs to a series of minimalist interventions that challenge conventional notions of artistic production. The piece avoids traditional media like paint, instead using the physical act of cutting and arranging paper to generate meaning. Its modest size and restrained materials reflect Carrión’s interest in dematerialized art forms.
Subject & Meaning
The work presents no figurative or symbolic imagery. Two faintly dark gray paper strips, placed diagonally opposite each other, function as subtle spatial markers. Their irregular edges suggest manual handling, emphasizing the artist’s hand and the process of selection. The absence of color or text directs attention to the act of framing and absence, inviting reflection on what constitutes a drawing when conventional elements are stripped away.
Technique & Style
Carrión constructed the piece by cutting paper with precision and adhering it to the support, avoiding brushwork or ink. The gray strips, slightly uneven in their alignment, reveal the hand-cut nature of the intervention. The signature, discreetly placed in one corner, functions more as a marker of authorship than an expressive gesture. The technique aligns with conceptual practices that prioritize idea over aesthetic finish, treating the page as a field for minimal intervention.
History & Provenance
The work entered The Museum of Modern Art’s collection as part of its broader engagement with artists’ books and conceptual drawings from the 1970s. Carrión, a Mexican artist based in the Netherlands, was known for his experimental publications and institutional critiques. This piece, like others from the period, reflects his interest in redefining the boundaries of art through everyday materials and non-traditional formats.
Context
Made during a period when artists across Europe and the Americas were questioning the materiality of art, this work resonates with movements like Conceptual Art and Arte Povera. Carrión’s use of paper—commonplace, ephemeral, and reproducible—aligns with his broader practice of publishing and mail art. The work resists commodification by rejecting ornamentation, instead positioning itself as a quiet inquiry into perception and artistic labor.
Legacy
Carrión’s Untitled exemplifies a shift in late 20th-century art toward dematerialization and process-based creation. Its quiet presence has influenced subsequent generations of artists working with paper, text, and institutional critique. The piece endures not for its visual impact but for its conceptual clarity—offering a model of art that derives significance from restraint, intention, and the redefinition of the page as a site of possibility.
Artist & collection
Artist
Ulises Carrión, considered as "perhaps Mexico’s most important conceptual artist", is widely known for his decisive role in defining and conceptualizing the artistic genre of artists' book through his manifesto The New Art of Making Books…
