The objects used for the frottage works were mostly hardware store black enamel, iron forms, clotheslines, rope, chains, hose, rods, wooden fence slats, ash cans, drain covers, cinder blocks, and raw canvas. Once a material substrate was chosen, Ferguson would execute sets of organizational variations with a workmanlike rigor, one after the next, week after week, rolling black-laden rollers over canvas and object and rejecting canvases that did not meet his mark. The criteria for the “rightness” of one over another had as much to do with the compositional integrity of the work as with the degree to which it was devoid of apparent deliberation.

Like painting, black was something Ferguson fully understood. That is not to say he dismissed color—he was gifted in his understanding of art history and of folk art. It is simply that in the careful logic of Ferguson’s work, black was the only viable option. Black, in his terms, represents the necessary reduction of means, whereas color brings with it an array of uncontrolled and unwanted associations and meanings. Black represented the tension, and, ironically, the freedom that comes from containment. The results differed, some drawing attention to the repetition, others, creating more whimsical almost textile-like patterns, while still others suggest the automated paintings of Pollock or Twombly’s scribbles. Simple yet bold, the black holds court, at once testifying and judging.