Aurora Borealis 1951

Jack Perlmutter made this print, Aurora Borealis, with, I'm guessing, a metal plate and some kind of acid. Look at how the lines seem to vibrate and multiply across the surface. It's like Perlmutter isn't just depicting the Northern Lights, but also the very act of seeing them. The textures here, the way the dark ink sits unevenly on the paper, give a real sense of depth. The way he uses these lines and dots reminds me a bit of Cy Twombly's blackboard paintings – all that layered scribbling and erasure. But here, instead of a blackboard, it's the night sky! Those clusters of short vertical lines at the top left, they're like a little cityscape being zapped by cosmic energy. Ultimately, like any good work of art, this piece isn't about answers. It is about the joy of looking, the thrill of not quite knowing.