Gargantua: Chapter XXV c. 1942

This print, Gargantua: Chapter XXV, was made by Bernard Reder. The bold blacks are really doing some heavy lifting, aren’t they? I love the way Reder lets the process show. He’s not hiding anything. See how the shapes are chunky, almost clunky? That’s the beauty of it. It's like the material is right there on the surface, full of texture. My eye is drawn to the figure center-frame hoisting what seems like a ladder. The density of the black ink around him gives a real sense of depth. The gesture of this figure is so active it’s like the whole scene is about to burst out of the frame! It makes me think about German Expressionist printmakers like Kirchner, who were also wrestling with ways to express raw emotion through stark contrasts and jagged lines. Prints like this remind us that art is always a conversation, a back-and-forth between artists across time, each one adding their own voice to the mix.