Germinal 1962

Robert Mallary made this lithograph, Germinal, with black ink punctuated by a vertical red line. The making of a print like this is an act of translation; the artist makes a drawing and then through a chemical process, the image is transferred to the stone and then printed. I imagine Mallary, hunched over the stone, carefully applying the tusche wash. The black ink has a real physicality, thick and tactile where it’s built up, almost skeletal in its structure. The lithographic process allows for the image to have a lot of variation, from a light, hazy mist to concentrated forms. Look at the way the forms seem to sprout and reach, evoking growth and emergence. The red line, such a contrast to the rest, seems to suggest a flow of energy. Mallary’s gestural approach reminds me of other artists, such as Franz Kline, who used bold, sweeping strokes to create dynamic compositions. Artists are always looking and responding to each other across time. Painting is an act of continuous creation through different forms, each interpretation leading to new ways of seeing and being.