Ressac (Surf)

Ferdinand Springer

Automatic, gestural lines trace the rhythm of ocean movement in Springer’s “Ressac” (“surf” in French). This is a fine example of the influence left on the artist by his time at the Atelier 17 in Paris in the 1930s, decades after working there. Much of what he created at the experimental printmaking workshop was lost during the chaos of World War II; this piece clearly draws from that well of experience, as if showing the viewer a conjured memory wrought upon the sheet.

“Ressac” shows Springer’s complete evolution into abstracted naturescapes. Along the top of the composition is a suggestion of the surface-line of the ocean, beneath it the seeming shapes of trailing seaweed, pulled into the wake of shadowy currents.