Fireplace 1930

Wanda Gág made this print, called *Fireplace*, with lithographic crayon on paper. Just look at the density of marks here! The labor of it. It must have been almost meditative, like knitting. I think it’s about the making of a safe, warm, domestic space, but the composition is a little bit wonky. The scene is slightly off-kilter, like when you get vertigo. And those little figures in the hearth—are they gnomes, demons, or just dancing flames? Gág was a feminist and bohemian, so I imagine that she enjoyed taking a traditional motif like a fireplace and turning it slightly dark. The mark-making is so intense, almost obsessive—I can really feel her hand moving across the surface, again and again. It reminds me a little of Piranesi's dark etchings of imaginary prisons. She’s in dialogue with all of the other artists who have sat in front of a fireplace, drawing and dreaming.