Untitled 1984

Elaine de Kooning made this bull image with ink on paper. Look at that big dark splodge of a bull rearing up, ready to charge. You can almost feel the earth shaking! I can imagine De Kooning, brush in hand, circling this image, smearing and blotting the ink, trying to catch the animal’s energy. You know, sometimes I stand back from my own canvases and think, ‘What’s missing? What does it need?’ She’s used thin washes of watery ink to create this sense of movement, like when you flick paint at a canvas and it explodes outwards. It reminds me of Franz Kline's work, all those bold strokes and stark contrasts, but with a kind of animal dynamism. Artists are always looking at each other’s work and figuring things out, like a big conversation across time. De Kooning’s bull isn’t just a picture, it’s a feeling, a moment of pure, untamed energy captured in ink.