Untitled (Abstraction) 1948

This is an untitled abstract work by George Stillman, made with what looks like etching, sometime in the mid to late 20th century. The thing that strikes me is the way the artist has built up the image through layers of marks. See how certain areas are densely packed with cross-hatching, creating deep shadows, while others are left relatively bare, allowing the white of the paper to breathe. There's this real sense of excavation, of the image emerging from the darkness. And look closely at the textures – you can almost feel the scratch of the tool on the plate. The whole thing hums with a raw, almost primal energy. It makes me think of artists like Cy Twombly, who embraced a similarly intuitive approach to mark-making. Ultimately, this piece reminds us that art is never really finished, but rather a constant process of becoming.