Trace 1979

John Hoyland made this print, titled Trace, using screenprint in 1979. There's an immediacy to the marks, which just sings of the joy of process. The colour is so visceral; it feels like looking directly at raw emotion. Hoyland wasn't afraid to let the texture of the medium speak for itself, was he? Look closely at that dark, blocky shape near the bottom. The way the ink bleeds and pools, you can almost feel the pressure of the squeegee as it forced the pigment through the screen. And then that loose, sweeping red shape, hovering on the picture plane, gives a sense of movement. Hoyland reminds me a bit of Helen Frankenthaler, someone else who wasn't afraid to push the boundaries of colour and form. Both artists remind us that art isn’t about answers. It’s about the questions we ask along the way.