Untitled 1967

This untitled drawing was made in 1967 by Seymour Lipton. It’s all about the push and pull of charcoal on paper. Lipton’s marks are urgent, almost like he’s wrestling with the form. Look at the way he builds up the shadows with these dense, scribbled lines. You can almost feel the pressure he exerted, the way the charcoal digs into the page. The texture is everything here. The smudges and the soft, grainy quality of the charcoal give the piece a real sense of depth and atmosphere. I think about Gorky when I see the biomorphic forms and the expressive mark-making. But where Gorky is all airy lightness, Lipton is earthy and grounded. It reminds us that art isn't about perfection, it's about the messy, beautiful process of trying to make sense of the world.