Artist Talk: Robert Forman, "Uncommon Threads"

From a distance, an artwork by Robert Forman appears to be many paintings at once, layered in some mysterious way. Up close, the mystery deepens: Instead of paint, the surface is composed of many colored threads, laid down with as much complex color theory as any Impressionist painting—or maybe more so, because Forman’s pictures have added dimensions of overlapping images and patterns.

"Uncommon Threads: String Pictures by Robert Forman," which opened at the Hoboken Museum on January 26. closes on March 16, when the artist will give a talk about his work at 4 p.m.

It can take a whole year to produce a large picture, and he works on two or three pictures a year. “It’s a slow process,” he says. “Instead of going faster, as I get more experience, I try more things and it can even take longer. I just don’t want to repeat the same thing—new ideas are what interest me.” His work has evolved from focusing on “retinal” effects—replicating the surface colors and texture, as in the picture, “Hoboken Station” to more layered compositions.