The Bite 1914

Edvard Munch made this etching, called 'The Bite,' with an intense layering of lines. I imagine Munch hunched over the plate, pressing and wiping. A dance between control and accident. The way those dense, dark areas pull forward, almost vibrating against the stark whites—it's like he’s carving emotion directly into the metal. There is an intimacy and struggle enacted through a combination of frenzied and controlled markings. You know, seeing this, I think about Goya, about how he used aquatint to create those shadowy, dreamlike scenes. It's like Munch is channeling that same raw energy, but making it completely his own. He's not just depicting a scene; he's dragging you into a feeling, into the rawness of human experience. That biting gesture—is it love, or pain, or some twisted mix of both? That tension, that ambiguity—it's where the real juice is. Artists are always in conversation. We borrow, we steal, we transform, and we pass it on.