Vesta 1947

This is Jacob Kainen’s ‘Vesta’, made using etching. The lines are raw and scratchy, the tone is dark and mysterious, but there's something so tender and human about how it’s put together. I love the way Kainen lets the etching process be visible, almost like a map of how the image came into being. Look at how the etching suggests the planes of her face, and the way he uses different densities of lines to create depth. There’s a real sense of touch and intimacy. The cross hatching that articulates the dark background is full of energy, with each stroke doing so much work to build atmosphere. Kainen reminds me a little of Max Beckmann. Both artists grapple with the human figure in a way that feels psychologically charged. They allow their mark-making to reveal the often-messy process of artmaking. Instead of aiming for perfection, they embrace the inherent ambiguity.