Vision 1939

Joseph Vogel made this drawing called 'Vision' using ink on paper. Just imagine the artist’s hand moving across the page, hatching lines to create depth and dimension. The ink bleeds and pools, building up the blacks against the stark white of the paper, a high contrast world. I wonder what Vogel was thinking as he worked? It feels like he was wrestling with ideas about form and space. I get a sense of architecture in there, maybe the inside of a building. Look at the skeletal structure of that bird like creature. It’s weird and wonderful. I wonder where that came from? Those areas of dense, layered marks really create a sense of tension in the piece. It reminds me of other artists who were experimenting with abstraction and surrealism. Vogel might have been looking at Picasso, or maybe some of the German Expressionists. Artists are always talking to each other, even across time. It’s like one big, ongoing conversation. Ultimately, a work like this reminds us that art isn't about answers, but about asking questions and exploring the possibilities of seeing.