Orpheus and Eurydice I 1980

Albin Brunovsky made this print, Orpheus and Eurydice I, with some kind of etching technique – aquatint maybe – where the marks build up this incredible density. Look at the overall tonal range; it shifts from nearly white to the deepest black. I’m really drawn to how Brunovsky creates depth through texture. The surface of the mountain looks like a living thing, a complex, tactile landscape, maybe a metaphor for the rocky path of love. See how the orbs hovering near the peak catch the light, like frozen tears? This feels so emotional, so human. The etching itself, the physical act of making these tiny marks, mirrors the labor and intensity of the myth itself. There's something of Goya in the dreamlike quality, the way darkness and light play off each other. Brunovsky is a reminder that art, like myth, keeps circling back, retelling stories in new and powerful ways.