Brian Fee reviews the exhibition Brice Marden: Graphite Drawings at Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, on view through December 21, 2013.

Fee writes: "The works on view, primarily a combination of charcoal, graphite, and beeswax, coincide with Marden's relocation to New York in the early 1960's. His understanding and utilization of grid structure begins this installation, in two Untitled works from 1964-5: one a powdery compressed-charcoal and graphite array of squares, the other an almost impenetrably smoky mix of media on heavy paper. Marden explores light reflection and absorption with beeswax in Teddy's Drawing (whose surface is as fuzzy as a zoomed-in animal pelt) and the almost metallic Patent Leather Valentine, bearing a heavily incised grid under a dense sheen."