New York Skyline 1951

John Marin sketched this New York Skyline with pencil on paper, and it’s all about the energy of the city, right? The lines are so immediate, capturing a sense of movement. Look at the cluster of marks near the bottom, like a whirlwind of scribbles trying to capture the city's frenetic pace. It's not about perfect representation but more about the feeling of being there, in the thick of it. There's a transparency to his approach, you can see the ghost of previous lines, the artist working through the image. It feels like he's sketching not just what he sees, but also how he feels, a diaristic approach to artmaking. You sense that art is always a process of discovery, of trying to figure something out, rather than stating something definitively. Thinking of Cy Twombly, there's something similar in the immediacy and rawness of the line. It leaves so much room for our imagination. It’s a conversation, not a lecture.