Untitled (January Group No. 1) 1974

Jake Berthot made this, Untitled (January Group No. 1), a sheet of charcoal marks, erasures, and reworkings. I can see him there in the studio, pushing and pulling the charcoal across the paper, wiping it away, only to build it up again. There’s a real physicality to this piece, isn’t there? The way the charcoal sits on the surface, sometimes thick and velvety, other times just a whisper of gray. He’s not just depicting something; he's wrestling with the medium, with the act of seeing. That one mark, slashing diagonally across the center, feels so decisive, so full of intention. It’s like a jolt of energy, cutting through the murk. I imagine Berthot working on this in conversation with the work of de Kooning or Guston, those guys who weren't afraid to get their hands dirty, to embrace the messiness of being. Ultimately, it's a reminder that painting is a conversation, a dialogue across time and space, where artists inspire each other to keep pushing, keep questioning, and keep making.