Antennae 1952

Eugene Bennett made this print, Antennae, sometime in the twentieth century. Just look at that gorgeous purple! A screen-print like this is all about process, each layer building on the last. I find myself staring at how the white lines hover over the solid ground of that purple, a real back and forth. Up close, you can see the slight imperfections, the places where the ink might've bled just a bit, or where the pressure wasn't perfectly even. It’s these tiny details that bring the piece alive, that let you know a human hand was involved. I love the way the lines create these sort of starburst shapes, delicate and strong all at once. This feels like something Cy Twombly might have been playing with, that same sense of open space and simple gesture, just distilled into something even more pure. To me this piece is like a visual poem, letting ambiguity sit right alongside more fixed ideas.