Under the boot 2019

Alfred Freddy Krupa made "Under the boot" on paper with what looks like ink, and maybe some watercolor washes. It's all about how he put it down, the traces left from his own hand, literally. The physicality of the piece, how the ink sits on the page, is striking. The bold, dark handprint to the left feels heavy, oppressive. Then, these delicate red lines connecting the hand to the rest of the image are like raw nerves exposed. You get a sense of urgency, of something being violently disrupted. Look at the way the face in the center is rendered, broken and fragmented, like a shattered mirror. It's all process, all feeling. This reminds me a little of Nancy Spero, who also used a kind of raw, immediate mark-making to address themes of violence and the body. Art's like a conversation across time, constantly reinterpreting and responding. It's never really about finding one right answer. It’s an exploration of different feelings.