Untitled 1952

This drawing was made in 1952 by Jean Helion and it looks like he used wax crayon. I'm picturing Helion's hand moving quickly, layering red and blue lines, letting the image come into being. I know that feeling when you're searching for the motif and the image. There's a coffee pot on a table, maybe, and a plant... but these things are just anchors, placeholders, for the real subject, which is the act of looking and feeling, trying to see, trying to get it down. The red lines almost vibrate with energy, while the blue seems to anchor the composition, like the bones of the drawing. There’s a push and pull between representation and abstraction, something I think about a lot in my own work. Helion is in conversation with painters throughout time who are trying to find new ways of seeing and expressing the world around them. It's like we're all talking to each other across time, and these images are just a form of call and response.