Vrouw aan een weefgetouw 1883 - 1962

This hazy print by Max Svabinsky shows us a woman at her loom. It feels like it emerged slowly, built up through layers of tiny marks, a bit like weaving itself, actually! I imagine Svabinsky, bent over his plate, etching away, thinking about craft, about labor, about the quiet dignity of this woman's work. Look at the way the light filters through the window, illuminating the threads as they crisscross. And then there's the woman herself, her face obscured, her body hunched over the loom. For me, it’s about the act of making—the way the artist coaxes an image into being, line by line, just as the weaver creates her fabric, thread by thread. I wonder if this piece reflects on the broader question of what is produced and how? And, like weaving, this print can be unravelled, or re-woven. It depends on you, the viewer.