The Carter Stuck in the Mud 1927 - 1930

Marc Chagall made this etching, The Carter Stuck in the Mud, and it's all about the energy of the lines. It's like he’s scratching directly into our eyeballs, right? See that massive boulder on the cart? The mark-making is so intense there, it's a total contrast to the figure floating above. It's all these tiny strokes coming together to suggest weight. Chagall doesn’t give us the whole picture; he suggests it. It's like he knows our brains will fill in the blanks. The scratches give a sense of movement and chaos. It's a really interesting combo of something very precise and totally unhinged. Chagall’s work reminds me of Klee, in the way he lets his imagination run wild, but he has his own vocabulary. It all feels very dreamlike. Art's not about answers, but how many questions you can ask at once.