Sleeping Negress c. 1943

Jack Van Deckter made this print, *Sleeping Negress*, using an engraving block; the black lines are so close together, they create a range of tones. It’s like he’s making a drawing with a really, really fine pen. The whole image is built up with these lines, parallel hatch marks, like a tight knit fabric, but what strikes me is how he uses the line to describe the forms: the curve of the figure’s body, the swell of the arm and the soft texture of the pillow. The lines are like tiny roads that take you all over the body. See how the figure's face is almost completely obscured? A jumble of dark and light. I think of other artists who've taken the body as a site, like Kathe Kollwitz, who used lithography to create similarly intimate images of working class people. Both artists use their medium to show the body as something vulnerable, human, but also strong.