Linienrhythmus 1919

Johannes Itten made 'Linienrhythmus' using swooping black lines to create swirling forms that seem to pulse and vibrate before your eyes. What I love is the way he builds up this composition through these rhythmic, repetitive marks; it's almost meditative, right? I can imagine Itten, lost in the act of creation, totally immersed in the push and pull of the ink across the surface. What was he thinking about when he made it? Was he thinking about how similar patterns and shapes recur in nature? The way these black spirals expand and contract against the white reminds me a bit of the gestural abstraction of some action painters. But there’s also something else here. It's a dance. Artists are always in dialogue, learning from and riffing off of one another’s ideas. It's as though they leave little messages in paint for each other across time, inspiring new ways of seeing and feeling. In the end, it opens up the work to many readings, and a world of possibility.