Untitled (Large Coloured Butterfly White Background 10 Wings)
Colored pencil on paper, 176.8 x 130 cm, 2004
Untitled (Green Butterfly)
Oil on canvas, 122 x 86.3 cm, 2002
Untitled (Black Butterfly Dioxide Purple MPG 05)
Oil on linen, 147 x 122 cm 2005
Mark Grotjahn uses hard edge design to create very subtle complexities in his work. He makes very physical surfaces with layering paint. He employs slight hue shifts to create space and perspective.
Although I think Mark Grotjahn's artwork is really beautiful, something that bothers me about his work is the way he titles it. For example the work above is "untitled" then in parenthesis he puts a title ... (Black Butterfly Dioxide Purple MPG 05). First and foremost, I really don't like to think of these images as referencing butterflies. I also think this way of titling is pretentious. When an artist titles something as untitled and then put a title in parenthesis I feel like I'm being tricked.
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