View II 1998

Ruth Fine made this print, View II, in 1998, using the etching technique. It’s all about how the artist coaxes a picture out of a plate, a press, and some ink. I love how Fine uses soft, smoky tones to create this landscape. There's a beautiful dance between dark and light, a real push and pull. Look at the way the tree branches reach out, like charcoal tendrils feeling their way across the paper. You can almost feel the pressure of the artist's hand as she worked, each line a deliberate act of discovery. There is a sort of shorthand with the marks that reminds me of Guston’s late drawings, where forms emerge from a simple vocabulary of shapes and lines. The print is small, but the feeling is vast. Like all good art, it leaves space for interpretation, for our own experiences to fill in the gaps.