The Warped Beam c. 1935 - 1943

Edward Hagedorn made this print, "The Warped Beam," with simple lines that feel both precise and free. The mark-making here is all about the process, that lovely scratching into the plate. Looking closely, the texture is amazing; the surface is alive with tiny, intentional marks. See how the lines create depth in the sky and mountains. It's like Hagedorn is revealing the physicality of the medium itself, emphasizing the push and pull, the darks and lights, that build the scene. It's about the journey, the act of creating, and the traces left behind. This reminds me a bit of Piranesi’s architectural prints, in the way he’s built a strange kind of symbolic space. You can almost imagine an artist like Terry Winters finding some kinship with Hagedorn’s linear abstraction, too. To me, it embraces ambiguity, inviting us to get lost in the possibilities.