The Possibility of Pointing

"The Possibility of Pointing" is a 1973 tempera drawing by Richard Tuttle that demonstrates the American Minimalist's engagement with the philosophical dimensions of gesture and intention, the image showing a simple mark or indication that suggests both the act of pointing and the conceptual framework that makes pointing meaningful. The composition is a small, intimate work—35.2 × 28 centimeters—the scale suggesting both the modesty of the gesture and the ambition of the philosophical inquiry, the tempera medium creating a surface of extraordinary delicacy and precision that makes the simple mark feel profound and mysterious. The ivory wove paper provides a warm, luminous ground that makes the tempera colors appear soft and inviting, the subtlety of the medium matching the subtlety of the concept. The 1973 date places this work in the same period as "Horizon About to be Held," suggesting that Tuttle was producing a series of drawings that explored the philosophical implications of simple gestures and basic marks, each work offering a different meditation on the relationship between the physical act of drawing and the conceptual content of the image. Art historians have connected this drawing to the broader tradition of the indexical mark in modern art, from the gestural brushstrokes of Abstract Expressionism to the conceptual diagrams of the 1960s, noting that Tuttle's treatment is more focused on the philosophical implications of the gesture, the meaning of pointing as an act of intention and direction, than the expressive or the formal qualities of these other traditions.

This 1973 tempera drawing made pointing philosophically profound through intimate 35cm simple-mark precision and ivory-paper soft luminosity, using conceptual gesture inquiry to distinguish Minimalist intentionality from Abstract Expressionist expressive brushstroke tradition.

It matters because Tuttle drew a point and made the paper feel like it was asking a question—proving that even a finger could be philosophy if the tempera was patient enough.