Petroglyph 1935 - 1942

Lala Eve Rivol made this piece, Petroglyph, with, what looks like, crayon on paper, and it’s like looking at a constellation of symbols. There is an urgency to the way it’s made, like a stream-of-consciousness drawing. The surface is built up with layers, allowing for a rich texture that gives the impression that the figures are emerging from a primordial soup. There's this figure at the bottom right, a kind of sun-being starfish thing, radiating energy in all directions. The lines are confident, like the artist knew exactly where they were going. The colour feels earthy, and the gray background makes the figures pop, like they’re jumping off the page, or crawling out of a cave painting. The layering of marks reminds me of Cy Twombly's work. It embraces ambiguity. It shows that art is an ongoing conversation across time, with no fixed meanings.