La Mesa c. 1947

Adja Yunkers made this monotype, La Mesa, in 1949. Look at the ways the blocks of dark and light interact – it's like a dance of form and shadow. It's all about the process, the push and pull of materials on a surface, that makes it so captivating. The velvety blacks and grays are layered, like memories, and the texture is so tactile, you just want to reach out and touch it. See those spots of red? They're like tiny embers, grounding the whole composition. Yunkers isn't trying to hide the process; instead, he celebrates the way the ink moves, the way the paper takes the impression. Yunkers' contemporary, Milton Avery, explored similar moods and palettes in his painting - both shared the emotional language of abstraction with the European expressionists. What I love about this piece is that it doesn't give you all the answers, it invites you to bring your own feelings, your own experiences, to the table.