Prayer 1945

Albert Urban made this print called "Prayer" with ink on paper, but we don't know exactly when. It’s all about the process, you can tell by the way the colors slightly misalign, and the paper shows through. It’s not aiming for perfection, but something more raw and immediate. Look at the blues and greens, how they build up the form but also flatten it out. It feels like a window, like looking into another world where the rules of perspective don’t quite apply. The seated figure is almost overwhelmed by this flatness, but the dark outlines hold it all together. There’s a sense of struggle here, between the figure and the space it occupies, a tension that makes the piece so compelling. This print reminds me a little of some of the early German Expressionist woodcuts, with their bold lines and emotional intensity. It's like Urban is wrestling with his materials, trying to capture something profound but also letting the process itself dictate the outcome.