Sails 1912

Arthur Dove made this painting, Sails, using what looks like pastel or maybe oil stick – something velvety. It’s all about suggestion, not illustration. Dove is feeling out the shapes and colours like they’re a puzzle. The textures and the mark-making here make me think about how we see, and how our minds fill in the blanks. Look at the way he lets the colours bleed and blend – browns melting into greens, yellows with blues. See that little triangle of white, peeking out from behind the dark green shape? Is that a glint of light on the water, or just a gap in the composition? Dove isn't telling us what to see. Dove was part of a generation grappling with abstraction. You might think of him alongside Marsden Hartley; both were searching for an American visual language, finding inspiration in nature but pushing beyond representation. It's this constant pushing, this not-knowing, that makes art so alive.