Untitled V 1954

Joseph Fiore made this black ink artwork, sometime after 1925. Look at the surface of the paper. I can see the frenetic marks, the way that Fiore's hand moved across the surface, building up a constellation of shapes. It feels like a kind of intuitive dance, a conversation between the artist and the ink. I think about Fiore, working away in his studio. I can almost feel his concentration, the way he is improvising with each stroke of the brush or pen. The ink is pooling in some areas, creating these dark, dense patches. It’s a kind of push and pull, a tension between control and letting go. Fiore was part of a whole community of artists who were exploring abstraction. Like many of his peers, he was trying to find a way to express something essential about the world. I think about all the different ways that artists have used paint to try and capture something elusive. It makes me feel like we are all part of this ongoing conversation across time. Painting is a way of thinking, feeling, and seeing.