The Palizada River Possibly 1946

Alfredo Zalce made this print of the Palizada River. Just imagine him, maybe with a magnifying glass, intensely focused on the surface, pushing the tool through the wood or linoleum. The composition is amazing, a balance of light and dark. The trees – or their roots, it’s hard to tell –reach down like hairy arms into the water, creating these amazing, weird animal forms. Like the figures in the boat, the trees are going somewhere and the river is carrying them all. I wonder what Zalce was thinking as he made it? Woodcut is an old medium, rooted in folk art and popular imagery, but it’s also, like, super time-consuming. It’s about being really involved and immersed in the practice. Each mark is deliberate. You can almost see his hand moving across the surface, defining the forms, creating a sense of texture and depth. I bet he knew other artists were doing the same. Painting is a great conversation, and we artists are always in dialogue with the past.