Cat 1980

Richard Mortensen made this "Cat" with what looks like big, swooping brushstrokes in black ink. You can really see the gesture and speed of his hand, like he’s trying to catch a fleeting moment. The way he lays down the ink – sometimes thick and opaque, sometimes thin and almost transparent – it’s like he’s wrestling with the image, trying to pull it out of the white space. Look at those sharp, vertical marks that make up the legs, they give the cat a real sense of weight and presence, but at the same time the feathery strokes around the head suggest movement, almost a kind of energy field. It reminds me a bit of Franz Kline’s abstractions, but with a touch of humor. It’s a reminder that art doesn’t always have to be serious; it can be playful, intuitive, and a little bit wild.