Untitled 1972

Jay Moon created this undated, untitled print with a limited palette of blues, blacks, and whites. I can imagine the physical work that has gone into this print, as it is full of texture, achieved through a layering of marks, and a wiping away of the ink. There’s something quite gutsy and tender about its mark-making. I can just imagine Moon standing here, carefully working the plate with an etching needle, a process of trial and error, figuring out what to keep and what to erase, what to leave to chance and what to define. There’s a tension between the darker sky and the energy of the water—the waves crashing against the rocks. But it is the small mark-making in the sea that catches my eye. Those small, white flecks dance across the surface. They are a conversation between texture and light. This print shows the artist’s interest in the natural world, and this feels very much in conversation with a whole history of landscape art.