Drie kruisen op Golgotha before 1938

R. Struben made this print titled Drie kruisen op Golgotha using an etching technique. Look at how the dark and light wrestle in this print. The artist coaxes the light from the darkness through all these scratchy lines. It makes me think about how an artist’s hand can use simple marks to create this whole world. The texture feels almost like a storm, with these stark rays cutting through the gloom, all made from dark ink on white paper. It's like seeing the world on the edge of something big. It's interesting how the artist uses these scratchy marks to render the clouds, and then uses the same kind of marks to make the light shining through them. It’s all process! Struben’s etching reminds me of other printmakers like Rembrandt, who used a similar, almost obsessive cross hatching technique to create really dramatic light and shadow. But where Rembrandt's work feels intimate, this has this great, epic scale, but leaves space for your own interpretation.