Untitled 1971

William Dole made this untitled collage in 1971, and it's like stumbling upon a beautifully weathered page of visual poetry. He seems to have approached this piece as a process, building up layers of imagery and text, allowing each element to interact and influence the others. Looking closely, you see how Dole plays with texture and surface. The paint isn't applied in a conventional way. Instead, he lets it stain and seep into the paper, creating a sense of depth and age. The snippets of text, the musical notations, the faint architectural drawings – they all hint at hidden narratives, like fragments of a dream. Notice the way the word "Opaque" sits at the upper-right. It's ironic, because the piece itself is anything but, suggesting that art can embrace ambiguity. Dole reminds me a bit of Kurt Schwitters, in his use of found materials and collage techniques, but there's a delicacy and lyricism here that’s all Dole’s own. Ultimately, it's a reminder that art is an ongoing conversation, inviting us to bring our own interpretations and experiences to the mix.