Tower of Birds 1949

Adja Yunkers’ ‘Tower of Birds’ looks like it came into being through layering, maybe with pastel or gouache, pushing and pulling a kind of structure out of colour. The artist is there, wrestling with the inherent difficulties of making something from nothing. I sympathise. It feels like an experiment, like he’s testing out ways of seeing. What might it have been like? I see Yunkers in his studio, surrounded by half-empty tubes of paint. The yellow is dominant, yet the structure is made up of browns, reds, blues and even metallics. Look how thin he’s applied the paint, creating a transparent effect. The tower almost dissolves into the yellow ground. There’s a real sense of embodied expression, and ambiguity that allows multiple readings. I imagine Yunkers admired the work of other painters, maybe Paul Klee, who knew a thing or two about the magic of birds. It's all one big ongoing conversation across time.