Ye Old Dutch Church, Upper Saddle River, No. 2 1951

This etching, "Ye Old Dutch Church, Upper Saddle River, No. 2," was made by John Marin. The light, delicate lines dance across the surface, barely containing the form of the church, but somehow, it’s all there. I can imagine Marin, squinting, trying to capture the essence of this old building. What was he thinking as he scratched those lines into the plate? Was he battling the weight of history, or just trying to find a fresh way of seeing something familiar? You know, it reminds me a little of Cy Twombly’s scribbles, but with a touch more… reverence, maybe? Look at how the lines almost dissolve into the paper, like a memory fading at the edges. That single figure standing in front adds a touch of humanity, but also a kind of melancholy. Marin was definitely part of an ongoing conversation in painting, a kind of back-and-forth across time. Painting like this embraces uncertainty, it leaves room for doubt, and it invites us to bring our own experiences to it.