I came across this drawing recently and can’t get it out of my mind.
It’s small, 12x9in. Pastel on paper. 1951
All I can think of doing to it is flip it horizontally and, behold, it doesn’t work in this view.
What we have here is a non-representational image of such internal tension that it cannot be altered.
It looks like nothing. Nothing?
When I look at this drawing–the original, on top– I want to project a vertical structure or a tree trunk between the red and black lines. But that vanishes immediately. What’s left is the quick markmaking, apparently unconscious, and the dominance of “negative space.”
The choice of deep yellow paper is uncanny. Imagine the paper gray or green or blue. No go.
Clifford Still is known for his huge paintings, as seen in the Clifford Still Museum in Denver.
This painting, PH812, also from 1951, measures 115 x 104 inches.
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artamaze by Katherine Hilden 