Untitled (Abstract Composition) 1948

Frank Lobdell made this untitled abstract composition in 1948. It’s all about the push and pull of black and white, a kind of visual dance between light and dark. I get the feeling Lobdell was really working the surface here, pushing the ink around to see what it could do. The texture is so interesting - you can almost feel the way the ink sits on the paper, sometimes thick and opaque, sometimes thin and transparent, and the marks are like whispers of movement. Notice that lower left corner? See how the dark ink almost pools? It suggests depth, like peering into a shadow. For me this piece recalls Goya's dark etchings, but there is also a conversation here with the Abstract Expressionists. It is the kind of piece that reminds us that art is never really finished, but always becoming.