"Untitled: Horizontal Abstraction, ca. 1949-50" by Gertrude Barrer, Amer., (1921-1997)

ca. 1949-50, Ink and Crayon Resist, 11 x 12-7/8, signed in pencil verso, on stiff crream wove paper. This early piece, with it's dark, subterranean ground, earthy palette and ghostly germinative forms, relates strongly to Barrer's other mature paintings. As she embraced, personalized, then transcended Indian Space concerns for all-over patterning and ambiguity between positive and negative form, Barrer infused her own hybred imagery with elements of both organic and man made structure, and monumental and mythic themes.