Nu de profil 1925 - 1927

Editor: Here we have Georges Rouault's "Nu de profil," created sometime between 1925 and 1927. It's an etching, giving it this stark, monochrome feel. It looks almost sculptural because of the deeply bitten lines. What catches your eye when you look at it? Curator: The intense physicality. Notice how the rough etching lines aren't just descriptive; they’re almost building the form of the body. We see Rouault manipulating the very material of the print – the copper plate, the acid – to *construct* this figure, almost like a raw, industrial process. Do you see any intentional marks from his making of this piece? Editor: Absolutely, those areas of smudged ink give texture to the piece. The texture is so gritty that they could almost be unintentional marks created in the making. What statement is he making on art by leaving these visible to the audience? Curator: Precisely. That deliberate roughness disrupts the traditional idealized nude. He isn't concerned with surface beauty but the material reality of both the figure depicted *and* the artwork itself. The social context here is also important. He's making this during the interwar period, and what does this distorted nude tell us about his culture's relationship to its working population? Editor: The image presents the human form through a more realistic portrayal using printing techniques. I never thought about how social anxieties can be shown just in the artistic labor itself. Curator: It’s about finding value and communicating with others by pushing and redefining art practices to their limits and the way we consume art overall. Thanks to that new perspective on process and production I understand a little more today.