Judy Rifka - The Wall - Detail 1; The Wall - Detail 2.

 These two works were created in the early 80s and are part of an installation called “The Wall”.

 

The installation was made up of separate elements. Each of these experimented with visual illusion or serve as a dictionary of the artist’s terms. Figurative motifs working in symbiosis with the formal subject.

 

The technique used within these paintings is unique: razor cut outs from stiff black fabric are laid down in wet pigment and pushed into place so that paint wells up around them, leaving tiny ridges to give depth to the line.

 

Rifkas explanation is as simple as true: “It’s a solution for the painters perpetual dilemma about how to make a good edge.”