The Three Sydney Close Woodcuts 1983

Jim Dine made these three woodcuts and joined them together, making an environment from a series of gestures in black ink. I love the way the material aspects shape the experience. The texture and surface are so important here, as well as the physicality of the medium. The marks almost feel like a bodily imprint, like the artist's own energy transferred directly onto the paper. You can see the grain of the wood block in the final print; it’s really physical. I wonder what Jim was thinking when he made this? Maybe about earlier expressionists like Munch, or the German expressionists like Kirchner? This piece reminds me that artists are always in conversation with each other, across time and space. They work through ideas. Experiment. They explore different ways of seeing and feeling and thinking about the world. And it’s through the artist’s embodied expression that ambiguity and uncertainty come alive.