REM 1991

Robert Keyser made this print called REM with ink on paper. The stark black lines on the bare page read like a map of a dreamscape, all these bold, blunt shapes remind me of Cy Twombly’s work, or maybe Guston’s late paintings. Keyser's choice of materials is so elemental: just black ink, and paper. Look how the ink varies in thickness. In some places, it's like a dry, scratchy whisper; in others, it’s a dense, almost viscous shout. Take a look at the bottom of the image, at the thick black strokes like heavy ropes. Notice how they don’t quite line up, creating this disjointed rhythm. The contrast between these darker areas and the sparse details in the upper reaches of the composition reminds me of the way thoughts fracture and scatter in your mind right before sleep. The combination of clarity and incoherence, the solid and the ethereal, keeps me thinking about what this print is really trying to say. Like dreams, it invites you into a space where clarity and ambiguity coexist, where the familiar and the strange become one.