Grey Still Life 1948

Adja Yunkers made this Grey Still Life, an abstract print, sometime in the 20th century. It’s a really interesting piece, especially when you consider the layering of colors and shapes, almost like a puzzle of textures. I’m drawn to how Yunkers handles the materiality of the print. There's a definite physicality to the marks. The brown horizontal band, for example, has a kind of woodgrain effect, but is so graphic it could be a screen door. The way the white lines interact with the solid shapes creates a fascinating tension. The overall effect is one of reduction, of paring back to the most essential forms. The dark blue acts like a canvas, but it’s actually the opposite of a canvas, it's ground, the nothing from which everything comes from. This piece reminds me a little of the work of Josef Albers, the way he played with color and form to create these really dynamic compositions. It’s all about embracing ambiguity and finding new ways of seeing the world around us.