Cup 1963

James McGarrell made this print called 'Cup' with dark ink on paper. See how the surface emerges from the darkness, and then falls back into it. It makes me wonder what it must have felt like to create such a work, with its stark contrasts and brooding atmosphere. There's something so visceral and immediate about the way the artist has worked. The marks seem almost violently etched into the paper. The figure has this cup in her hand, but her thoughts are somewhere else, maybe in that dark space swirling around her. You know, it reminds me of some of Goya’s darker etchings, where the boundaries between reality and nightmare become blurred. I imagine McGarrell wrestling with the weight of history, personal demons, and the sheer materiality of his medium, trying to find a language to give form to these elusive feelings. It’s like a conversation between artists across time, each grappling with the human condition in their own way.