Untitled 1949

Luchita Hurtado made this untitled piece with, what looks like, a block-printing technique. She used brown, blue, yellow and black pigments and layered them on top of each other. I imagine the artist carving away at a block of wood or linoleum, carefully plotting where each color would land, and the way she let the colors mix, so that one shape bleeds into another. I wonder if Hurtado worked from observation, or if she tapped into her imagination to create these abstract forms? I can feel an emotional connection to her work and an intuitive way of knowing. The scratches and imperfect lines give it an unfinished, kind of raw look. Hurtado’s work makes me think of other artists who use abstraction to convey feeling like Agnes Martin or Hilma af Klint. These women painters are engaged in a conversation across time, each adding their unique voice and perspective to the language of painting. In their work, there are no mistakes, only opportunities for growth and discovery.