The Wolf Pleading against the Fox before the Monkey 1927 - 1930

Marc Chagall made this etching, The Wolf Pleading against the Fox before the Monkey, out of dark and light lines, scratched and bitten into the plate. Just imagine him, hunched over the metal, making marks that dance and weave. There's something so wonderfully raw about the gestures here, as if Chagall is saying, "Let's see what happens if I put these lines here, and there." I picture him in his studio, maybe in Paris, wrestling with the image, letting it emerge through trial and error. The monkey looks like he's about to fall out of the tree! And the wolves look a bit like dogs - all very Chagall, who loved animals and incorporated them into lots of paintings. It reminds me that art isn’t about perfection but about exploration. Like a conversation, each mark responds to the one before, building up to a kind of visual argument. The monkey, the wolf, the fox; they’re all players in this drama, and we get to witness it unfold.