Untitled (Nautical Composition) 1950

This is Emil Bisttram's ‘Untitled (Nautical Composition),’ made around 1950 using what looks like a printmaking process, maybe lithography or wood engraving. There’s a real sense of process at play here, with layers of hatching building up these angular, almost crystalline forms. The surface has this really nice texture, a kind of overall grittiness that gives the whole image a palpable feel. Look how the light catches those facets of the sailboats! Each tiny line feels deliberate, like a little decision being made. My eye keeps getting drawn to the rope in the foreground, the way it loops and twists. It’s like a metaphor for the artist's thinking, the way the mind can get tangled up in its own knots and then find a way to unravel them. Bisttram was part of the Transcendental Painting Group, and you can see that interest in spiritual geometry here, filtered through a kind of Cubist lens. Think of Marsden Hartley, or maybe Lyonel Feininger, but with its own distinct flavor. It’s a reminder that art is always a conversation, a way of seeing the world that's both unique and connected to something larger.