First Etching [right panel] 1980

Joel Fisher made this etching on paper, and when I look at it, I think about all the nothingness in the world. Just kidding! But the palette is so restrained that it makes me want to look closer. I see a ghostly rectangular shape hovering at the edge of the paper. I wonder what Joel was thinking about as he was making this work. Maybe he was interested in the subtle differences between tones. A dialogue between transparency and opacity, lightness and darkness, presence and absence. What does it mean to make an etching that's barely there? I look at this etching and think about Robert Ryman and other artists who challenge our perceptions of what painting, or in this case, printmaking, can be. Artists are always pushing boundaries and asking questions of each other across time, inspiring new forms of creative expression.