The Three Muscians [sic] 1945

Mary Gehr made this print, 'The Three Muscians' [sic], with ink on paper. It's a flurry of dark marks, like she's chasing the musicians with her brush. You can almost hear the cacophony of instruments in the frenetic energy of the lines. But look closer and the image coheres; the figures emerge from the darkness with hats, instruments and even a striped shirt. The whole thing teeters on the edge of abstraction. What I love is how she uses these bold strokes to suggest form rather than define it. Notice how the weight of the ink varies, creating depth and shadow. The white of the paper peeks through, giving the piece a sense of lightness, like a fleeting moment captured in ink. This reminds me of some of the later expressionist painters like Guston. They also embraced a kind of raw, unrefined mark-making to convey emotion and experience. It's all about embracing the process and letting the materials speak.