These paintings depict a man working with hand tools: sawing, and using a wrench to hammer in a nail. In both images, his focus is on the task at hand. They are a series of actions, not of goals or achievements. 

There is no context or background, nor even any materials or objects for him to work on. He stands with his legs apart to brace himself for the work, but no work is done.

This quality – of mid-process, of incompletion – is also connected to the artist’s drawing technique. These sketches, although in oil paint, are drawings rather than paintings. They present a record of the act of mark-making, showing the artist’s second thoughts and corrections, along with his moments of clarity and precision.

In these drawings, says Sack, “the space of action” is in that “gap between accuracy and error, between purpose and process”.

What does Sack mean by this, do you think? Why does such a gap imply action?