4:1 (For David Novros)

Brice Marden American
1966
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
Marden is devoted to the ongoing process of discovery, and the uncertainties that accompany it, rather than to the achievement of definitive conclusions. Featured in his first solo exhibition, at New York’s Bykert Gallery in 1966, 4:1 consists of a unified field of modulated brown-gray—an indeterminate color characteristic of his early work—that tapers off at the bottom edge near a channel of exposed canvas. Drips and slim, tapered brushstrokes reach into this channel, serving as evidence of both gravity and the artist’s labor. 4:1 is painted with encaustic, a mixture of oil and beeswax that records the movement of the artist’s brush, spatula, and palette knife across the canvas as well as the irregular marks these implements leave behind.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: 4:1 (For David Novros)
  • Artist: Brice Marden (American, born Bronxville, New York, 1938–2023 Tivoli, New York)
  • Date: 1966
  • Medium: Oil and beeswax on canvas
  • Dimensions: 60 × 65 1/4 in. (152.4 × 165.7 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Glenstone
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Brice Marden / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph Tim Nighswander / IMAGING4ART
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art