Bar Room Brawl 1939

Paul Keene made this energetic little print titled "Bar Room Brawl" in 1939. I just love how he’s created a kind of maelstrom of bodies with just a few marks. Keene's got these figures all tangled up, right? The energy is palpable. I imagine him hunched over a plate, scratching and biting at the surface, trying to capture the raw energy of a fight, the sheer chaos of it all. The bare feet! Are they kicking or running away? It reminds me of some of Goya’s etchings, the way he captured the dark side of humanity with such intensity. But there’s also something very personal about Keene’s approach, a kind of empathy for these struggling figures. You see, artists are always talking to each other, across time and space, riffing on each other’s ideas, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. It's like a big, messy, ongoing conversation that we’re all invited to join.