The result has been stretched and framed. Colour, gesture, all things declarative have discretely withdrawn. The painting is a whisper rather than a shout. Yet the whisper is persistent. In a mysterious way it awakens and rewards attention.
Beautiful pictures are by definition unified.
Unity of course implies a unity of parts, a whole greater than their sum. But as art changes, the parts themselves change, as does the character of their sum. This is where some of Griefen's challenge appears. Since the early 20th century, the predominant shapes in painting have been relatively small in relation to the whole. In Griefen's paintings form-shapes have been subsumed within a continuous surface.