Mullican’s 1980s paintings and drawings represent a striking evolution in his visual language. In these works, the rich, elemental tones of his earlier work have given way to a graphic, pared down palette of black and white. Dense striations of paint have loosened to create a rhythmic pattern of mark-making and voluptuous, rorschach-like abstract forms.

Mullican was a seeker and throughout his career he pulled from a wide range of influences to create works that found new meanings through formal explorations of composition, color, mass, and mark-making. These late works on paper reflect the dynamic, continuous process of experimentation that defined Mullican’s art-making.