Chicle Gatherer 1943

Leopoldo Méndez made this print, Chicle Gatherer, using black ink on paper. The whole image shimmers with these tiny, scratchy white lines. The face almost emerges out of a solid block of black, as though it's being revealed or uncovered. I love the way the face is both solid and soft, with this almost eerie quality. The marks feel frantic, like the artist couldn't wait to get the image out of his head and onto the block. And then there's the background, this tangle of branches and roots that seem to grow out of the figure’s head, which adds a surreal and unsettling feeling. It's as though the figure is connected to the earth, rooted in the landscape, but also trapped or consumed by it. You see the artist’s hand at work, the process of slowly removing small areas to make a striking image. You might almost think of Munch, with his own raw and intimate approach to printmaking. It is a reminder that art often thrives in the space between intention and accident.