Landscape 1954

Here's a color woodcut on paper by Robert Conover, and right away, I'm seeing a kind of dance between light and shadow. He’s got these jagged black lines, but then these sharp, yellow, almost staccato shapes popping out. It's like he's building up the landscape not just with what's there, but also with what's implied, what's been carved away to let the light in. I’m trying to imagine Conover as he chiseled away at the block, figuring out where to leave a mark, where to cut away, and how the colors will all play together. Those blues aren’t mucking around either! I get the sense he was after a feeling more than a scene. There’s something about it that reminds me of the German Expressionists, like they were also trying to dig into the raw feelings of the world, and let that guide the work. Painters, we’re all in this big conversation together, riffing off of each other across time. We make a mark, then someone else sees it, and makes another mark in response. It's a dance, or maybe a game of telephone! It’s never about getting it “right” but about keeping the conversation flowing.