Repose 1944

Albert Urban made this print, "Repose," in 1944, and what strikes me is how little seems to be in its rightful place. The nude model is made up of many fluid shapes that are echoed in the surroundings, so that the figure and background seem to merge, or almost reverberate. The colours are mostly earth tones, red brown, dark grey, and beige, which make the figure blend into the scenery. You can clearly see the marks and gestures of how the image was made, perhaps with a brush and some kind of etching tool to make the dark lines. It’s like Urban is exploring the meeting point between representation and abstraction and seeing what happens when the model appears to break apart. The strange tangle of the figure's left arm and hand is like a knot, and it makes the eye linger over this area of the image, considering the relationship between form and chaos. The push and pull between these two elements is the focus of the work, and in this way, Urban reminds me of Philip Guston, who also liked to find the figurative in the abstract, and vice versa.