Contrast 1960

Waichi Tsukata made this expressionistic print called 'Contrast' in 1960. It's mostly black ink on a cream ground, with some of the marks heavier and some of them thinner, almost like washes. I'm imagining the artist making this and thinking about that title, 'Contrast' – heavy and light, solid and void, and how one helps you see the other. It's not just about what is *there* in the ink, but also what *isn't there*. That big dark shape at the bottom almost looks like a Rorschach blot. It pools at the bottom and then scatters off in tiny droplets to the side. You can see a similar effect in the drips and dashes at the top of the print. Painters are always in conversation with each other, and I imagine Tsukata was in dialogue with the Abstract Expressionists, who also embraced accident and chance in their work. Painting and printmaking are embodied forms of expression, and the artist lets the image come into being through feeling and intuition.