La mort l'a pris comme il sortait du lit d'orties 1922

Georges Rouault made this print with thick black ink, and the image seems to have risen out of darkness, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. I can only imagine what it must have been like to create this image, to be Rouault, staring into the abyss. I think, what was he thinking when he made it? Look how the thick black lines define the skeletal figure, raw and unrefined. The texture itself feels heavy, burdened. See the gesture of the arms crossed over the chest, a primal expression of fear, vulnerability, or maybe just plain cold. Rouault was part of a much wider conversation, the same conversation that we’re having now. Each artist inspires the next across time, generating a constant exchange of ideas that allows for multiple interpretations. It’s a conversation about uncertainty, where fixed readings just won’t do.