Untitled 1961

Glen Alps made this Untitled print using the intaglio method; a process where ink is pressed into etched lines on a metal plate. It’s all about touch, the hand, the pressure of the plate against the paper. The textures and tones are so interesting, from the dark, almost velvety blacks, to the ghostly grays. See how the straight lines in the background contrast with the flowing, almost organic shapes in the foreground? It’s like two different worlds colliding. You can almost feel Alps scraping and digging into that plate. Take that central shape. Is it a weird flower? A spaceship? Or maybe just a shape, floating in space. It reminds me of some of Gorky’s biomorphic forms. In art, there's no one answer, just different ways of seeing.