Untitled (Abstraction with Head and Mills College) 1933

Here's a print by Sidney Joseph, made sometime around the 1930s, in a limited palette of black ink on paper. It's a scene, or maybe a portrait – but really, it's more like a diagram of seeing. I love the way the shapes come together, how Joseph simplifies the world into these bold, graphic forms. The face, fractured and reassembled, feels both present and elusive, you know? Like a memory trying to surface. I can see some geometric structures and bold angular forms which almost look like architectural elements. The negative space is just as important as the black ink, creating a push-and-pull, a visual rhythm that keeps the eye moving. The stark contrast and decisive lines remind me a little of German Expressionist woodcuts or maybe even the bold graphics of someone like Stuart Davis. But Joseph brings his own unique sensibility to it, a kind of raw energy. It’s all about the energy, and the way that art-making is like a conversation that never really ends.