Mujer y el mar 1956

Joy Hester made this work, "Mujer y el mar," with ink on paper. The way she’s worked the ink feels immediate, like she's chasing after a feeling more than a likeness. Hester’s working with a monochrome palette here, but it's so rich. It’s like she’s found a million different shades between stark white and deep black. Look at how she’s built up the texture, especially around the woman's face and the sea. See how the marks aren't just descriptive, they're expressive. The brushstrokes almost seem to be swirling around her head, like thoughts or emotions. It’s all so gestural. There's this sense of the subconscious bubbling up. The dark sweeps around the face are particularly evocative, as if the woman's identity is being subsumed by the landscape around her. This piece reminds me a little of some of Käthe Kollwitz's lithographs, but with a more personal, almost raw edge. It's like Hester's not just showing us an image, she's inviting us into a conversation about feeling.