Magus 1987

Jacob Kainen made this print called Magus, and it’s this cool puzzle of geometric shapes. The colors are muted, almost like they're whispering secrets, but then you've got these bold black lines that are really loud. I love how Kainen uses texture here, it’s all about the surface of the paper. Some areas look like they've been gently rubbed, others have these scratchy marks, it's a real mishmash of feelings. Look at the way the black lines form these overlapping squares and rectangles, they create a kind of window, or maybe a stage. The background, those vertical strokes, feel a bit like woodgrain, like the whole thing is built from something solid. There’s a resemblance to Stuart Davis, who also chopped up the picture plane into planes and jazzy rhythms. It’s not just about what you see, it’s about how you see it, which is always changing.