Graphic Sheet I 1958

Jirí Balcar made this print, Graphic Sheet I, with etching in 1968. Look at the bold, black lines that crisscross and pile on top of each other! You can almost see the artist’s hand at work, scratching away at the surface, each line a deliberate mark, a record of time and movement. I can imagine Balcar hunched over the plate, his brow furrowed in concentration, totally absorbed in the process. Those textures aren’t just there—they're built up, scraped away, and layered again, kinda like the process of thinking. It makes me think of other printmakers like Dürer and Goya, how they used the medium to explore the darker sides of human nature. Balcar’s marks are a language all their own. In art, we’re all in a big conversation with each other, riffing off each other’s ideas, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.