Fishing Contest 1940

Leonard Pytlak made this print called ‘Fishing Contest’ and it looks like it was made with colour linocut. There’s something so raw about linocut, the way the image is carved directly into the material. You get this sense of the artist’s hand, their struggle and their joy in the making. I love how Pytlak uses a muted palette with blocks of gray, green, and brown, creating this slightly melancholic atmosphere. The surface is pretty flat with minimal texture, everything feels very intentional. But then you look closer and you see these subtle marks, like the white lines suggesting ripples on the river, which gives it this sense of movement and energy. For me it recalls some of the American Regionalist painters like Thomas Hart Benton, and their depictions of everyday life. But Pytlak brings his own unique vision, embracing the beauty of simplicity. In the end, art is about seeing the world in new ways and making connections across time.