Untitled

Roy De Forest

Artist Roy de Forest’s work is not readily contained in one totally identifiable style, though he was associated with the Funk and Nut movements in California. This is partially due to his preference for immersing himself in a process as opposed to aiming for an outcome.

Of his technique he said, “Rather than, say, taking an image and then finding a way to express it in paint, sometimes I think about how to use a paint and then find an image that fits it.”(from a 2004 interview with Archives of American Art). The result is often playful, led by instinct.

This early untitled lithograph with uninked embossment exemplifies that theory, with the artist’s joyful discovery of shape and texture playing out on the sheet, the “purpose” of the image left to the viewer to discern.