The Last Stone Walls, Dogtown c. 1936 - 1937

Marsden Hartley made this painting of the stone walls of Dogtown with brushes, paint, and probably a lot of feeling. I can only imagine him there with his materials, looking, trying, failing, trying again... That’s what painting is. There's something so matter-of-fact about Hartley's process, like he's simply describing what he sees, but with such care! The stones are each rendered with chunky, circular marks that feel both solid and permeable, like they could shift and move at any moment. The greens and blues are cool and muted, but the dark accents of the trees and the winding vines create a sense of depth and mystery. I think about Guston and Cézanne, and how they each, in their own way, grappled with the challenge of representing the world around them through the act of painting. We are lucky to have this, and all paintings, really. They speak to each other across time, inspiring new ways of seeing and feeling, each mark an effort to translate experience into something tangible.