Where Do We Go? 1919 - 1920

This print, Where Do We Go?, was made by Kerr Eby, and well, it looks like charcoal on paper. What interests me is the energy in the marks he’s made, which for me speaks of the process of artmaking as one of bearing witness. It feels like the texture of the thing is everything here. The surface is almost entirely covered in marks. The darks are so strong they almost come towards you, and it’s not hard to imagine the artist really bearing down on the material. There’s something about the repetitive, almost frenzied quality of these marks that speaks to the trauma and the urgency of the subject matter. Look at the way the legs of the soldiers are described, how they almost become one with the water. It’s as if the boundary between the human and the environment has been blurred, suggesting a loss of individual identity. There’s something about Kathe Kollwitz in this work. Perhaps it is the dark palette or the subject matter, but both artists share an interest in human suffering. Like Kollwitz, Eby uses the language of printmaking to create a deeply felt and empathetic portrait of humanity.