Buying pictures iii: Painting in white

There's always more of that
stuff where it came from than
can sustain the illusion that
it is white. White-by-convenience
undermines white for identifica-
tion's sake. White-for-lack-of-a-
better-word throws up its hands
in genetic meaninglessness, but
still it suggests a border more
than an assimilation. Theologists
in hues are exegetic in the news
of its constraint, ignoring they're
exploring a delusionary taint. What
we like about Duchamp is his device
for getting rid of it; about Rothko,
his vision of its permeability. 

Marcel Duchamp
In Advance of the
  Broken Arm
1915
Collection MoMA

Mark Rothko
untitled
1968
Collection unknown

Peter Gay
Modernism
  The Lure of Heresy
  from Baudelaire to Beckett
  and Beyond
Norton, 2008©