Isabella I 1974

Al Held created "Isabella I" on paper using graphite, layering linear forms, and intersecting planes. Imagining Al at work, I picture him circling the page, almost like a dance, adjusting angles and weight, letting the forms emerge through trial and error. The composition feels like a game of spatial relationships, where circles nudge against rectangles. Held's mark-making feels intuitive, as if he's trying to discover the essence of form itself. There’s a playful quality, kind of like he's letting shapes tumble across the page, testing their limits. You can feel the legacy of artists like Mondrian and Malevich, who also reduced form to simple geometry. Ultimately, Held makes me think about how we create meaning through abstraction and how artists build on the ideas of those who came before. It's an ongoing conversation across generations, inspiring new ways of seeing and feeling the world.