Untitled 1962

This black and white drawing by Seymour Lipton was made in 1963. It's full of energetic marks, like he was really feeling it, you know? I'm picturing Lipton in his studio, charcoal in hand, wrestling with shapes. There’s something so immediate about charcoal, you can really dig in. I love how the chunky lines create these angular forms, almost architectural, but also kind of organic, like they could be bones or some weird plant. That one dark patch, right in the middle – it’s like a black hole, sucking everything in. I wonder if he reworked that area a lot, layering and smudging until it felt right? It reminds me of some of the drawings of Franz Kline, or even Goya. Artists, we’re all just riffing off each other, borrowing and stealing and adding our own little twist. You can see it is a conversation happening between artists.