Newton Creek c. 1935 - 1943

Max Mougel made this print called ‘Newton Creek’, probably sometime in the mid-20th century. The all-over mark making creates an image from a zillion tiny lines, a kind of system, but the image feels very free. Look at how Mougel created the reflection of the industrial buildings in the water. The marks here are vertical and almost a mirror of the forms above, but looser, more open, and watery. The contrast between the dense, almost claustrophobic network of marks describing the factory versus the relative calm and openness of the water, it’s beautiful. The light in the sky is achieved by the absence of marks. It’s funny, Mougel’s system reminds me a little bit of the way Agnes Martin worked, but in her case to abstract some kind of inner feeling. Here, Mougel uses a similar method to describe the external world, a place, a factory, a creek. Whether it’s the inside or the outside, it’s all just marks on paper, and that’s the magic.