Tabloid 1938

Paul F. Berdanier made "Tabloid" as an etching. This is, like, a wild scene of the newsroom! The chaotic composition, with its frenetic mark-making, feels like a glimpse into the artist's mind. The skeletal figure, the headlines, the figures without heads… it's a visual overload. But look closer, and you'll see a kind of meticulousness in the details. The way the lines cross and hatch, creating a sense of depth and texture, gives the image a tangible quality, even amidst the madness. And the way he uses light and shadow gives the scene a sense of drama, heightening the emotional impact of the work. In the lower left, see how the pile of laundry in the basket has a feeling of soft, tactile material quality. Berdanier reminds me a bit of Grosz or Dix, those German Expressionists. But Berdanier's got his own spin. It's this kind of exchange, this conversation across time and place, that makes art so endlessly fascinating to me.