Study for "The City from Greenwich Village," I c. 1922

John Sloan made this graphite study, "Study for 'The City from Greenwich Village,' I," with rapid, searching marks, giving us a sense of the urban landscape forming right before our eyes. You can feel the artist working through the image, testing out lines and shapes, and it makes the whole thing feel so alive. The paper peeks through, becoming a sort of atmospheric haze. Look at the way the artist has used simple lines to suggest buildings and streets, creating depth with just a few strokes. The way he captures the essence of the city, it's almost like a shorthand for a feeling. This reminds me of some of Guston’s drawings, where he's using a similar kind of raw, immediate mark-making to capture a world that’s both familiar and strange. Art isn’t about perfect representation, it's about finding a way to express something that’s beyond words.