Drawing [D88] 1948

Morris Louis made this drawing with pen and ink sometime before 1962; it's got that frenetic, searching energy that you sometimes get when an artist is really trying to figure something out. There's so much going on here, it almost feels like a stream of consciousness. The lines are wiry, almost nervous, but they build up to create these dense areas of dark and light. Look at the way he renders the figure on the left – it’s almost like a tangle of scribbles that somehow coalesce into a body. And then there's that wild-eyed face in the center, all teeth and swirling lines. It reminds me of some of the drawings of the Surrealists, like André Masson. I love how Louis isn’t afraid to leave things unresolved. It feels like he’s inviting us to participate in the process of making sense of the image, rather than presenting us with a finished statement. You know, art isn't about answers, it's about embracing the questions.