The Mandrill's Tea Party c. 1945

Veronica Helfensteller made this lithograph, The Mandrill's Tea Party, at some point in the mid-twentieth century, and I can only imagine what it must have been like to create. The whole scene emerges from the darkness through the artist's hand. There's something so weird and intriguing about the composition. The giraffe, the girl, the baboon—each figure has a distinct presence, yet they come together in this unusual gathering. I sympathize with the artist, sitting alone in the studio, conjuring up this scene through the pressure of the lithographic stone. What was she thinking as she made the marks that render each form visible, working from dark to light? The surface is alive with texture and detail, an interplay of tonal variations and subtle gradations. It reminds us that artists are in an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting or printmaking is a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning over fixed or definitive readings.