Classic Ruins II 1963

Rudy Pozzatti made 'Classic Ruins II' in shades of black and white, and it looks like he used ink to summon these ancient forms from the ether. I can imagine him there, wrestling with the image. What to keep? What to erase? He’s trying to capture that sense of time and decay, right? The ink must have flowed and dripped, pulled in different directions like memory itself. See how the lines aren’t precious? They overlap, they smudge; they feel like a ruin that's been dreamed, layered with half-remembered stories. I am thinking of Piranesi, of course, who did all those imaginary prisons. Pozzatti lets the ghosts of the past bleed into the present. He's reminding us that everything changes, crumbles, gets rebuilt, and re-imagined. And that’s what keeps us artists going, isn’t it?