Monica Variety 1962

David Budd made "Monica Variety" with charcoal. There is an urgency and intensity in the sweeping marks, it's like seeing right into the artist’s mind as he worked, the energy flowing from his arm onto the page. You can almost see him, the charcoal in hand, feeling his way through the composition, maybe wiping it back and starting again, the push and pull of figuring something out. I think Budd was interested in the raw potential of the material. See how the charcoal is sometimes dense and black, and in other places light and smudged, it really sings. In some ways, this drawing reminds me of the work of Franz Kline, but perhaps with a more introspective quality. I wonder if Budd was also looking at Cy Twombly, there’s a similar sense of freedom and spontaneity. Artists are constantly in conversation with each other, both living and dead, it’s like we’re all trying to figure out this thing called life, and art helps us to do that.