Untitled
1905
oil
From the collection of Museum of Modern Art
1905
oil
From the collection of Museum of Modern Art
Untitled is a 1905 oil by Alfred Wallis, depicting water transport, held at Museum of Modern Art.
You see a choppy sea in thick white paint, with pencil lines marking waves and a tiny red sailboat tilting sideways. Wallis was a fisherman who started painting in his 70s, using leftover ship paint and cardboard. He never trained, so the shapes look simple and almost childlike—but the rough water feels real. If you like this, look up *impasto*—the way he slaps paint on thick, so the waves almost pop off the paper.
