Movement, Fantasy Series 1943

Curator: It's John Marin's "Movement, Fantasy Series," done in 1943. What springs to mind for you, seeing this drawing? Editor: Utter chaos! In a strangely beautiful way, though. Like looking at a shipwreck and being mesmerized. All this charcoal feels very immediate and raw. Curator: Raw, yes. Marin's process often felt like chasing after a feeling more than depicting a specific scene. There’s this modernist dance happening between figuration and total abstraction here. Note the expressive nudes mingling with the landscape. Editor: The nude figures immediately catch the eye. They're placed amidst a tangle of abstract charcoal strokes that resemble broken timbers and twisted limbs, so they feel very classical, almost sacrificial... But then the dynamism overwhelms it all, doesn't it? There is a constant interplay. Curator: It feels like witnessing a world in transition, mirroring, perhaps, the anxieties of the war years. Marin was deeply affected by world events. This might explain why such primal figures feel trapped amidst so much expressive distortion. It's a landscape of the mind as much as anything else. Editor: These fragmented figures give it a surreal quality, that classical feeling quickly disappears and the whole work gives an insight to an agitated spirit. It reminds me of archetypal imagery of destruction and rebirth, it feels atemporal. Curator: It seems his mark-making, though frenetic, attempts to capture this enduring essence, almost as though attempting to catch lightning in a bottle. Editor: Ultimately, its power lies in how those fleeting moments come together to depict something lasting, like a glimpse of a universal narrative. What I get most of all, from this drawing, is the fragility of existence. Curator: Well, perhaps we all see something different when we really allow our minds to take over while looking at the artwork. That is the real fantasy.