Untitled [recto] 1971

This untitled work was made by Giorgio Cavallon on paper, and it’s just delicious. I can imagine the artist with a stick of brown crayon, maybe leaning over a table, letting these marks come out of him. It looks like he’s making some kind of permeable architecture, a loose grid or scaffold. The crayon strokes are scrubby and imperfect, with a beautiful, pale background peeking through. I feel him, trying this, then that, adjusting the armature of the composition. The surface feels soft, receptive. He’s feeling his way into a pictorial structure. That crayon line at the bottom anchors the whole thing, giving it weight. You see other feathery pencil lines too, underneath and weaving around. He’s probably thinking about Mondrian and maybe even cave paintings, that’s the thing about painting, it’s one big conversation! Anyway, it’s not about answers, it’s about the ongoing act of feeling and thinking.