Stable Lantern c. 1936

Florence Huston’s ‘Stable Lantern’ is a drawing made with ink on paper. The hatching that Huston uses throughout the drawing is so methodical; it's like she's feeling her way around this lantern, building it up line by line. Look at the upper left corner of the lantern, the ink is so dense here, it’s almost velvety. And then, notice how the lines thin out and become more spaced as the form recedes into the light. This area is like a little lesson in tonal value. The slight imperfections in the lines are telling too, like a fingerprint, they reveal Huston’s presence. It makes me think of Agnes Martin, another artist who used a very limited palette. And like Martin, Huston finds a kind of freedom in this restriction, using a system of mark making to open up a whole world. What is so wonderful about art is this capacity to find alternative modes of expression.