Brooklyn Bridge (Study for "On the Bridge") 1944

John Marin made this study of the Brooklyn Bridge with charcoal on paper, and you can almost feel him feeling his way around the image. It's all about the charcoal marks. See how they capture the bridge's structure in a flurry of lines? He must have been thinking, how can I show this huge bridge, with all its weight, but also with its dizzying, exciting energy? I imagine Marin standing there, charcoal in hand, trying to wrangle this beast of a bridge onto paper. The charcoal isn’t thick, but he uses it to suggest the hugeness of the bridge. The strokes are confident and immediate, but there's a vulnerability too, a willingness to let the drawing find its own way. It’s like he’s saying, "Here's what I see, but it’s also about how I feel." Painters like Marin are in conversation with each other across time. They are sharing ideas and ways of seeing, and it’s all about embracing ambiguity, and allowing for multiple interpretations.