Richard Smith (b. 1931)

In a letter to Beatrice Monti della Corte on 1st March 1972, the artist writes of the present work, 'The format is only moderately removed from a square or rectangle and the surface has a much more fragile look leaving the fabric more like fabric. This fragility is also accentuated by tapes that weave in and out of the surface or knots of ribbon tied through the canvas, both revealing the thinness of the cloth. The way the tapes weave through seems to be equivalent to the weave of the canvas itself on a much enlarged scale. This could be a step towards that long thought of, never realised, project of making my own material'.