Gloomy Face, Self-portrait 1922

Walter Gramatté made this etching, Gloomy Face, Self-portrait, by dragging a sharp needle across a metal plate. See how the artist seems to have been thinking aloud through the network of lines? I'm trying to imagine him in the studio, working back and forth, scraping away at the plate. It's tough, etching a metal plate, you know? It's a dance of mark-making, a rhythm of pressure and release. I wonder what he was thinking, what he wanted to show of himself. Maybe he was trying to unearth something hidden? The horizontals across his eyes are interesting, barring his gaze, hiding him from the viewer. It has a kinship with other self-portraits, like those by Beckmann or even some of the more raw self-portraits by Van Gogh. Artists, we are always looking at each other, borrowing, stealing, riffing. We're all in conversation. Anyway, isn't it cool how one little scratch can communicate so much? It's a testament to the enduring power of art to evoke feeling and thought.