Idris Khan

The Milwaukee Art Museum had a special exhibition of the works of Idris Khan, including some made for the exhibit.

Early on, he experimented with overlays of pictures or musical scores or book pages.

In a way the result was like a time projection, in which everything "happens at once", or at least all the pages do.

Later on he created pictures by overlaying stamped phrases in sunburst patterns--not readable except on the fringes. So long as you don't try to read or understand the patterns, it is reasonably abstract, but there's no communication involved.

My take-away was that art relies on what you choose, but also on what you reject. Lumping everything together loses intelligibility and beauty. It's not a mode humans are made to appreciate: God can see everything at once but we can't.

Some of his stamps: