The Limit 1947

This painting, "The Limit", by Arshile Gorky, is an exercise in making space out of marks and color. It's like Gorky's feeling his way through the painting, trusting the process. The surface is all scumbled, scrubbed back, and layered, with these ghostly shapes floating around. I see a kind of playful push-and-pull, where some forms emerge, and others dissolve back into the ground. Check out the soft, hazy edges around that big black shape on the right – it’s like a dark cloud, but also kind of velvety and inviting. And then there's the pop of bright yellow, and the scribbled mess of blues and greens. These aren’t quite figures, and not quite abstract either – more like memories or dreams taking shape. Gorky's process reminds me a lot of Joan Miró's, someone else who let the subconscious have its say, and explored the beauty of ambiguity.