Numbers, signage and text in late American Expressionist painter Alfred Jensen’s thickly painted canvases suggest dry, instructional diagrams while at the same time attracting attention with bold color and form. Now on view at 125 Newbury in Tribeca, a selection of Jensen’s work from the late ‘50s to the mid-70s titled ‘Diagrammatic Mysteries’ reaffirms the simultaneous significance and impenetrability of the work, backed up by a quote from iconic Minimalist Donald Judd in a gallery handout – “The theories are important to him and completely irrelevant to the viewer.” Freed from the need to uncover Jensen’s meanings, visitors can discover pleasure in the works’ formal qualities and suggestive text, patterns and sequences. (On view through Feb 28th).
