The Desert of Sinai, No.2 1917 - 1919

This is James McBey’s etching, ‘The Desert of Sinai, No.2’. Just imagine him making this, pulling line after line into that copper plate - what a commitment! I wonder what he was thinking, alone there, in the desert with his materials? I imagine McBey observing these figures moving across an open, unforgiving landscape. The dryness of the desert is evoked by the bareness of the composition. The bones are so stark in the sand! It's interesting to compare McBey's work to other artists of his time; you see this interest in depicting modern life through printmaking and an almost journalistic style. You know, looking at how McBey used line to create shadows and contours, it reminds us that art-making is always in conversation with what came before, and always suggesting what might come next. Every mark is a thought, an action, a decision, and a question all at once.