Imaginary Paris Studio 1916

Edwin Dickinson made this imaginary studio using printmaking techniques, and it’s like a stage set waiting for the players to arrive. I love how Dickinson uses stark black and white to create a sense of depth and drama. The marks are so gestural, they almost feel like a dance. You can see the artist feeling his way through the space, the textures thick and thin, as if Dickinson is building the room from the ground up. It's raw, immediate, and deeply personal. Look at the way the stripes on the figure's skirt echo the lines in the floorboards. It's like Dickinson is collapsing the figure and the space, making them one and the same. It reminds me of some of Philip Guston's later works, where the figures and objects are all tangled together in a sort of psychological soup. It’s all about the process of seeing, thinking, and feeling.