Wall Stencil c. 1940

This wall stencil by Alvin Gully feels like it was plucked right off someone's kitchen wall. It's a study, but you can almost hear the scraping of the stencil. The muted blues and reds are like a faded memory. The texture isn't just in the paint, it's in the very paper it's on. Look at the main panel, right down the middle: a crack runs from top to bottom. It's like the whole piece is breathing. I'm reminded of Cy Twombly's scribbles, how he made marks that felt both ancient and brand new at the same time. This stencil has that same quality. It's a fragment, a piece of something bigger, and it invites you to imagine the whole story. Art isn't about perfect answers, it's about the questions it stirs up.