Untitled 1961

This is an untitled print by Louis Bunce. It has blocks of black and off-white. You can tell that Bunce had fun with the process of layering and mark-making. The forms are so raw. There's a real tactility here. Look at the way that black ink is applied. It's thick and textural. And the use of stencils or masking techniques makes the image feel even more immediate, you know? Like the artist was really wrestling with the materials. I'm drawn to that vertical rectangle in the centre. It looks like a kind of doorway or a portal, and inside there's the barest suggestion of a human form. It's kind of haunting. Bunce’s work reminds me of other artists who explored abstraction and figuration, like Philip Guston. But in his willingness to embrace ambiguity, Bunce feels like a unique voice.