Ancestors 1953

Dorothy Dehner made this print, 'Ancestors', sometime in the 1950s, and it's all about the power of line. The texture in this piece comes from the density of marks. Look closely at the way the faces are built up from simple shapes. See how the lines seem to scratch and bite at the paper? There's something really raw about that, an urgency to get these figures down, as if they might disappear if she doesn't work fast enough. The overall tonal effect of the piece is like a memory, something half-formed, barely visible, but undeniably present. In a way, Dehner's work reminds me of some of the early Picasso prints. There’s the same sense of trying to conjure totemic forms out of thin air, a shared interest in the primal power of simple marks. Of course, art isn't about answers, it's about questions, and this print asks some pretty big ones about where we come from and who we are.