«Abstraction as...»: Amy Sillman’s critical practice between Abstract Painting and short-form essay writing

Abstract

The essay examines the figure of Amy Sillman as a pivotal point for understanding the transformations and complexities of contemporary abstraction. Starting from her critical recognition and her distinctive dialogue with twentieth-century art history, the essay reconstructs the profile of an artist who has been able to combine painting, writing, and curatorial practice in an original and hybrid manner. Sillman challenges the historical and ideological assumptions of the “canon of abstraction,” exploring its margins, limits, and contradictions through concepts such as the unfinished, error, irony, and formal ambiguity. The essay thus proposes a view of abstraction as an unstable field open to multiple reinterpretations. Central to this inquiry is the role of writing, understood as a critical tool capable of accompanying and interrogating painterly practice. Sillman’s curatorial and theoretical work therefore contributes to redefining the canon of abstraction, foregrounding marginal genealogies and unconventional modes of artistic production.