Untitled 1971

This untitled print was made in 1971 by William Dole, and it’s all about the dance between intention and accident. The whole thing feels like a carefully orchestrated mess. I’m drawn to the materiality here, this luscious black ink. Notice how the rectangular forms on the right aren't just shapes; they are built with layers, the strokes visible and tactile. Look at the bottom left corner, where the ink pools and splatters, creating a sense of depth and texture. It is almost like these shapes are sinking into the paper. There’s a lot of artists who were working in a similar way during this period, I’m thinking particularly of Robert Motherwell and his open, gestural mark making. But what I like here is that these forms never settle, never quite resolve; they float between abstraction and something almost architectural, a suggestion of meaning that keeps shifting.