The Dance 1920

Hans Meid made this intaglio print, a technique that involves incising an image into a plate, probably copper, from which multiple images can be printed. Looking at the image, I imagine the artist carefully working on the plate, scratching and etching the lines that make up this scene. You can almost feel the artist’s hand moving across the surface, as if possessed by some kind of fever dream. There’s such a sense of movement and energy, a real frenzy of marks. Is this wildness a mirror of what's going on in the dance? The stark contrast and the density of lines create a kind of visual tension, a push and pull between chaos and order. The figures emerge from a dense background, full of dark, scratchy lines like you might find in the work of Kathe Kollwitz or even Goya. It makes you think about the artist's state of mind, the emotions that drive the act of creation itself. This print speaks to the long, rich history of printmaking and its unique ability to capture the human condition.