Paris Light 1963

Frank Wright made this print, called 'Paris Light', using soft hues that make me feel like I'm staring into the sunrise through bleary eyes. I'm imagining him layering washes of color, one on top of the other, building this pinkish, orangey atmosphere. I wonder, did he start with the horizon line, or did he let the city emerge out of the ether? The buildings look like a dense pattern or texture, and I'm wondering if Frank saw them as individual forms, or as a collective, a community, huddled together. There is a tension here, in the way the graphic quality of the city meets the atmospheric sky. I imagine Frank Wright looking at Bonnard and Vuillard, but doing his own thing, finding his own way to be dreamy and present, and in conversation with all the other painters who have tried to capture a mood, a place, a moment in time.