Untitled 1961

This untitled print was made by Louis Bunce, but when exactly remains a mystery, so we have to look closer. What do you see? It's mostly black ink, pulled and pressed onto the page, and it's divided into geometric sections, but what's inside is abstract. I can imagine Bunce in the studio, moving between control and accident, between intention and improvisation. He might have been thinking about light, or maybe shadow, or just the pure texture of ink on paper. Look at that one swirl there; I wonder what kind of tool he used to make that mark. Was it a brush? A rag? His finger? The overall effect is kind of architectural, but also organic. Bunce's work reminds me of other artists who were exploring similar themes around the same time. He's in conversation with painters like Robert Motherwell and Franz Kline. The way the forms lock together, pushing and pulling against each other, shows how he embraces the ambiguity, inviting us to bring our own feelings to it.