False Image Postcards 1968

Eleanor Dube made this graphic artwork sometime in the late twentieth century. It’s a linocut printed in black and white. Imagine her hand pressing into the linoleum, cutting these stark lines into the surface. It’s not easy; it takes force. I like the figure, composed with its strange grid-like head, like a globe perhaps? Are those hands reaching out from behind? The skirt is made of flowing lines that give it the sense of movement. You can really see the artist pushing and pulling, cutting and printing. It seems intuitive, each line building into something bigger. Dube’s work often combines abstract forms with figurative elements, reflecting an interest in surrealism and personal mythology. With its stark contrast and simplified forms, this print resonates with the work of other twentieth-century printmakers. Artists are always in conversation, echoing, responding, and building on the ideas of those who came before. Painting is a kind of ongoing exchange, a back-and-forth, that embraces the ambiguous and uncertain. Each artwork has multiple interpretations and meaning.