Raymond Saunders. Depth Comes from Process

“I covered it,” said Raymond Saunders of a completed work he painted over.¹ It was a piece he could have sold—multiple museums had expressed interest—but the canvas was also a substrate when he needed one. And for Saunders, a completed painting is merely an artifact of the process. As such, the artist abstains from ascribing specific meaning to his completed works for fear that verbal explanation narrows a painting’s visual potency and its potential to remain alive, relevant across time and space.