Untitled Boris Margo, 1940 monotype with ink additions, 22.8 x 29.5 cm (9 x 11 5/8 in.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the Richard Florsheim Art Fund Margo Biography

A summer resident of Provincetown, Boris Margo created in 1940 more than fifty monotypes, many of which became the basis for later paintings. Working in a beach hut, surrounded by nature, he applied ink to the plate with broad strokes suggesting the dunes, sea, and sky. For Margo, the monotype served as a window into his imagination, tapping his unconscious thoughts and inviting chance effects that helped him develop abstract, surreal imagery.

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