Jeremy MoonUntitled [8/71] 1971

Moon’s work of the late 1960s is characterised by compositions based on a hard-edged and rigidly geometrical, non-representational visual language and the use of unmodulated colour. In 1970, the artist commented: ‘the need to keep the picture completely abstract is very important to me’ (quoted in Jeremy Moon, 1976 p.7). Untitled [8/71] measures some 2.1 metres by 2.5 metres. Its composition consists of a grid made up of four vertical black bars crossed by four horizontal yellow bars on a white ground.

Between 1968 and 1971, the grid became the central motif of Moon’s work. He used it ‘not just as a structuring device but as a motif in its own right’ (Livingstone, [p.1]). The painting Trellis 1962 (T01841), only the sixth or seventh work Moon produced, offers an early indication of the possibilities for experimentation that the artist saw in the geometrical arrangement of lines on a single-coloured plane… (read more)