The black line here in the hands of Manet's Christ seems to have something to do with the accents of the urban 'black' one sees in the tophats and overcoats of the Parisian strollers.
Manet made boat shapes black on a viridian sea. Here Monet does a similar thing. One sees it taken forward in Matisse and Marquet takes it to make the center of his style. Close valued color tempered with figures and lines of black.
Van Gogh in his struggle to draw he almost incises this line and finally uses black to get the full force of effect.
This is where I'm going with all this. A blow up of the Van Gogh gets us mighty close to Picasso and Jasper Johns, if on squints.
This line of Van Gogh also connects to what I'm bringing up later about Guston.
One can see here how this line sets the strenght of Picasso and Matisse.
Mondrian has his own complete evolution which has created a unique Modernism. He begins with a naturalistic illusionistic line and comes along to the more artificially drawn line, now flattened, and more in relation to the reality of the surface of the physical canvas.
Beckman is someone I am interested in lately as he is a link to Marsden Hartley and this line coming to America through German Expressionism through Picasso's influence.
Gorky and de Kooning, and Pollock bring all this forward to a new level once again.
There is a nice grouping of Guston in the Atrium. I was surprised then when I came upon this Claes Oldenburg. I then saw how Elizabeth Murray related to this group.
The insistent black line drawing, in it's variations has been an important way in which reality has been seen as Modern. There have been many subtle innovations in this evolution in the last 40 years. We are missing Frank Stella, Rosenquist, and later Johns.
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