Calvino’s Cities on the Amazon 1995

Joyce Kozloff made *Calvino’s Cities on the Amazon* with paint, to make a map or chart. Kozloff’s process feels both intuitive and ordered; she lays down a structure and then fills it with detail. The texture is fascinating; the background is all these flowing brushstrokes in green and brown. It gives the whole piece a sense of movement, like you are flying over the Amazon. Dotted around are all these little squares – like tiles or windows - each containing a unique pattern. Look at the square towards the bottom, on the right side, with the checkerboard pattern: it draws you in. You can almost feel the weave. It’s like the painting is full of tiny portals. Kozloff reminds me a little bit of my friend, Etel Adnan, in the way that she blends abstraction and landscape. And like Etel, Joyce isn’t trying to give us a clear, singular view. Art can be a way to embrace ambiguity and the multiple ways of seeing.