According to Aho, “The monotypes in the Ice Cut suite emerged as a way to explore subtle changes in coloration around the edges of the central shape of the composition. Slab deals with the delicate tonal and temperature changes within the thrust of ice at a river’s edge.”In curator Mara Williams’ estimation, “Aho’s work is a perfect synthesis of abstraction and representation, the general and the particular, process and memory. It is both original and a précis of contemporary and art historical influences.” Of the painting Ice Cut, 1929, Williams said, “It is a particularly daring painting. A large inky-black void is the central feature of the canvas, its flat, barely inflected surface markedly different from the glistening, encrusted area surrounding it. Representing in the geography of the painting the cut exposing the frigid river water, this black void is at the same time a reference to contemporary abstract masters such as Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline, and Ad Reinhardt.”
