Untitled 1939

Ralston Crawford made this untitled collage in 1939, probably playing with found images and scraps. The color palette is striking: that deep cobalt blue next to the warm red-brown stripes. It's like a Mondrian gone a bit rogue, don't you think? Crawford's got this flat, almost graphic style going on, but then you see the actual texture of the photograph he's pasted in, that gritty building, and the woman’s face in the window. It's the kind of collision you don't see coming! Those diagonal stripes and the way the yellow slices through the space – it’s like the whole thing’s about to slide off the page! And those colours! The way the brick red, blue and yellow interact reminds me of early Stuart Davis, all jazzy and syncopated. It's a piece that knows it doesn’t need to make perfect sense to still feel totally right.