A moment of freedom 2013

Alfred Freddy Krupa made this black ink painting, 'A moment of freedom', on paper, and its title is intriguing. I wonder, was he feeling free as he made it, splashing the dark ink in these swirling patterns? Or is the painting trying to capture some elusive feeling? You can almost see the brush dancing across the paper in a flurry of gestures. See how the black paint is laid down in broad strokes, contrasted with the negative space left bare? It’s like a conversation between presence and absence, action and reflection. I’m reminded of some of the ink drawings of Franz Kline, where these contrasts and marks create such a distinctive visual language. Maybe Krupa was thinking about Kline, or other artists, as he worked? Perhaps he was trying to loosen up and make marks that surprised him and, in turn, surprise us. Ultimately, what this painting tells us is that paintings don’t need to represent anything to convey emotion, and they are not made in isolation but as part of a long artistic continuum.