The Ramapo Mountains Country, N.Y. 1950

John Marin made "The Ramapo Mountains Country, N.Y." with watercolor and charcoal; it's dated '50, which I assume means 1950. The way Marin’s marks sort of hover on the paper, they make me think of a landscape remembered, not necessarily observed. The washes of color are delicate and yet, the composition is dynamic. Look at how he's used the blue. Patches of it pool at the bottom like water and then they reappear higher up, suggesting shadows or maybe even the sky reflected in the mountains. It's mostly transparent, allowing the charcoal lines to peek through, creating a sense of depth. There is a column on the right-hand side, its blue wash a little stronger than the rest, that almost divides the picture plane. Marin was one of the early American modernists, always pushing the boundaries of representation. It reminds me a bit of Arthur Dove, but with a more nervous energy. He seems to ask, how much can I take away and still have it be a mountain? Or maybe, how can I capture the feeling of being in the mountains, rather than just painting what they look like? There's no right answer.