Untitled (Abstract) 1937

Charles G. Shaw made this untitled abstract work with ink on paper. I can imagine him in the studio, a solitary figure, making marks and lines, watching the image emerge through trial and error. Those black shapes, heavy and pregnant, hanging in space, feel like some kind of language. It's as though the artist is trying to work something out, trying to find a form to express a feeling or an idea. The texture looks smooth, with the black ink sitting on the surface of the white paper. Look at the dots and dashes—the way they scatter around those shapes creates a sense of movement. Shaw was part of a generation of artists who were pushing the boundaries of representation, exploring new ways of seeing and thinking about the world. And in a funny way, all artists are in conversation with each other. We’re all trying to make sense of this crazy world we live in. Painting is a form of embodied expression. It embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning.