The Hurricane 1955

Germaine Richier made this etching, The Hurricane, with ink on paper. The surface texture feels almost violent; it's not a smooth or relaxing scene. The ink looks dragged, like it was wiped away as much as it was applied, which lends a frenetic energy to the work. Look at how the figure on the right is built from so many tiny, frantic marks. I wonder if she made them one at a time or if she invented a tool to make many marks at once? You get the sense of something disintegrating as much as forming; it’s not a clear, unified image. There's a real push and pull in the materials. Richier's contemporary Alberto Giacometti often worked with a similar sense of existential searching, so she's in good company in this piece. I love how the medium itself becomes a metaphor for instability. There’s no resolution here, only a storm of marks.