Untitled

About this work

This painting is just a blank sheet of light yellow paper. There’s no image, no lines, no color—just an even, smooth surface. It looks like the paper itself is the artwork. The artist, Rei Naito, made this in 1999 using colored pencils, but here there’s no drawing. It’s all about the empty space and the paper’s texture. The Museum of Modern Art owns it, which means they think it’s worth looking at. If you like this idea, check out cross-hatching—it’s a way artists use lines to build shadows.