Arrangement with Violet Minor 1941

Edward Landon made this abstract print, Arrangement with Violet Minor, at an unknown date with a screenprint. The process is right there on the surface. It’s all about simple shapes and the tension between straight lines and curves. I’m really drawn to the way Landon uses color here. The flat planes of salmon pink, gray, and faded blue feel so grounded, especially against the off-white paper. And then he slaps on these heavy black lines, some of which are really thick, others whisper thin. They weave in and out, creating this crazy spatial puzzle that keeps my eye moving. It’s like a visual game of cat’s cradle. You know, looking at this, I can’t help but think of early 20th-century abstraction, maybe someone like Kandinsky but with a distinctly American vibe. It’s a reminder that art is always talking to itself, across time and space, and that meaning is never fixed.