Apprehension 1942

Irving Amen made this print, Apprehension, sometime in the 20th century. The monochromatic palette, stark blacks, and textured greys, create a somber, unsettling mood, while the faces and buildings seem built up from energetic hatched marks. It's a world made up of process. There's a very physical quality to this print. You can feel the artist’s hand as they worked the surface, scraping away at the plate, building up tone and texture. Look at how the lines converge to create the towering buildings, which lean precariously overhead. The sky is a soft grey, achieved with delicate lines, in contrast to the solid mass of the buildings on the left. Below, the upturned faces convey a sense of dread, like mourners gathered around a coffin. This piece reminds me of the German Expressionist woodcuts of artists like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, who used bold, angular forms to convey a sense of psychological intensity. Like those artists, Amen embraces ambiguity, leaving us to grapple with the many possible interpretations of this powerful image.