New Jersey Landscape 1932

Donald Carlisle Greason rendered this work, New Jersey Landscape, in ink on paper. The drawing exhibits a rather frenetic energy, built from a complex layering of hatched and curved lines. It's a landscape, but one that's been filtered through an expressionistic sensibility. Greason's marks are crucial here; they don’t just describe forms, they construct them. Look at how he uses the density of his lines to suggest the bulk and volume of the trees, and how the frantic scribbles almost seem to vibrate on the page. This technique destabilizes any fixed representation, allowing the drawing to become a field of potential meanings rather than a straightforward depiction. The landscape is fragmented, almost abstracted, through the nervous energy of the lines. This is where the drawing transcends mere representation and enters into a dialogue with modernism's broader concerns. We find ourselves questioning not just what is depicted, but how we perceive and construct our understanding of the world around us.