Blue Island 1979

Emerson Woelffer made this small collage, Blue Island, in 1979. It’s a joyful arrangement of torn coloured paper on a red background. The act of tearing creates a contrast between the clean lines of the rectangular forms and the rough edges of the shapes. I can imagine Woelffer in his studio, snipping away, moving the shapes around on the ground, playing with them, before committing to the final composition. The collage has an improvisational, kind of ‘off-the-cuff’ feeling. I am particularly drawn to the little triangle of orange, poking out from under the blue island. It’s a small, but important gesture, echoing the black rectangle at the bottom right. Woelffer was interested in the spontaneity of the surrealists and the abstraction of the Bauhaus artists - he was joining a larger conversation through painting. He knew that art is not just about making something that looks good, but about sharing a way of seeing.