Untitled (Abstract) 1937

Rupert Turnbull made this untitled abstract image with ink on paper. The image is full of floating black shapes and the whole thing feels like it’s about to take off. I think the artist was busy composing a reality that they were constructing from within. I imagine them working with the shapes, placing them carefully, rearranging them, and seeing what fits. It seems the artist had a vision of a world in motion where one thing is not in any fixed position, and everything’s moving in relation to everything else. I can really feel that in the hatched pen strokes, the way they gather and swarm, buzzing with energy. It reminds me of Picasso or Braque, those guys were also busy smashing up how we see and making it new. You could spend hours looking at the way all the marks and shapes come together and construct a new way of seeing. Painters keep on going, inspiring each other across time. It’s a constant exchange of ideas and ways of seeing.