Tangled Undergrowth 1954

This is Anthony Gross’s "Tangled Undergrowth", made with ink on paper. The density of line, the mass and the layering – it's a total process piece. There’s no real hierarchy, just the feeling of being in and among the foliage, all kinds of marks blending and overlapping into one another. Look at that dark branch that arcs across the middle ground: the way it’s drawn, thick and dark, it's like a signature move in the piece, but that’s just one element. There’s no single focal point, and yet it’s not chaotic. Gross is composing a feeling, you know? He reminds me a little of Philip Guston, the way he’s built his own language from personal marks, or maybe Cy Twombly, for the way his lines and shapes are constantly moving between abstraction and figuration. It's all about keeping a sense of play and invention alive.