Interior II 1 1950

Ruth Lewin made this black and white print titled, Interior II, sometime between 1924 and 1975. I imagine her carving away at this woodblock, slowly revealing a composition of contrasting textures and motifs. I see a scene that feels both intimate and abstract, a mash-up of interior architecture and the shapes of people. Look at the patterns: stripes, circles, triangles, all crammed together in a space that feels both claustrophobic and expansive, like a room that’s folding in on itself. What could Lewin have been thinking as she conceived of this interior world, full of geometric shapes and bizarre figures? It’s like she's speaking to us in a language of form, inviting us to piece together a puzzle that has no single solution. Lewin’s print reminds me of the work of other artists who experimented with abstraction, who were in search of something that went beyond realism, like the Surrealists who came before her, or the Pattern and Decoration movement that came after. Each mark feels like a personal statement. This is just one moment in an ongoing conversation.