Brushwood 1911

Anders Zorn made this etching, Brushwood, which you can see at the Art Institute of Chicago, by dragging a tool across a metal plate, leaving tiny burrs that catch the ink. Just imagine him, head down, inking and wiping the plate, thinking, ‘How can I suggest a whole world with just a few lines?’ I feel for him, I really do. How do you capture light flickering through leaves, the curve of a body, the feeling of being surrounded by nature? Look at those marks – nervous, quick, like he’s trying to catch a fleeting moment. It’s almost abstract, right? The figure kind of emerges from the shadows and the scribbles. Artists are always in conversation, even across centuries. Zorn was clearly looking at other printmakers. The magic of art is how it keeps transforming in our eyes and in our minds. There’s no single, right way to see it – just a constant, evolving exchange.