Stylit II, 1968

About the Work

In the 1968 work ‘Stylite II’, the image becomes a three-dimensional object. Painting expands forcefully into the space around it, almost threatening to burst. This major early work by Graubner is one of a group of three shown at documenta 4 in Kassel that year. With its perfectly white surface, it is, for all its tactile quality, a classic expression of ‘Noli me tangere’, touch me not. ‘Stylite II’ is both an autonomous painting and a spatial object belonging to our world. It is at once purist and physical and, through its upright form, provides the viewer with a vis-à-vis.