Puddle Paintings employ elements such as handwritten words and combine them with the raw application of poured aluminium paint. The artist’s use of a double negative – the term ‘NO’ and its partial concealment – extends his interest in repetition ad infinitum.

The appearance of coagulated silver paint makes direct reference to techniques of abstract expressionism and the notion of gestural action. In particular they allude to Jackson Pollock’s ‘drip’ technique deemed powerfully expressive. The ‘New York School’ used abstraction to deliver a specific emotional charge; progressively the canvas became an arena in which to act, and, according to seminal critic Harold Rosenberg, was transformed from a picture to an event.

Brüggemann’s works echo the critique of painting and attempts to further erode the tropes of personal expression, namely style and signature. The resulting canvases function as ‘anti-paintings’ since they fulfil but the most rudimentary conditions of painting, yet are entirely lacking in emotion and painterly quality.