Playa 1962

Robert Mallary made this print called ‘Playa’ using a monochrome palette, and I love how he’s used the materials to guide us through this landscape. It really speaks to me about process, that art is what happens when you let things unfold. There’s such a physicality in this print, you can almost feel the weight of the ink, see the way he’s dragged it across the surface to create these textures. Look closely at the top of the piece, there’s this area that looks almost like a frozen lake, with these delicate rivulets running down. And then, below, this darker, denser area, like a swamp or a bog. It makes me think of Rauschenberg's experiments with printmaking, that art can be found in the everyday, in the overlooked. It's like Mallary is inviting us to wander through this landscape, to get lost in the details, and to find our own meaning in the marks he’s made.