The Lion and the Gnat 1927 - 1930

Marc Chagall made this print, The Lion and the Gnat, and it's all about the push and pull of dark and light, which is what printmaking is all about, right? The whole thing's kind of scratchy and scribbled, like he's thinking out loud with his pen. Look at how he's built up the shadows around the lion. It's like a dense, tangled forest of lines, really expressive and full of energy. Then, bam! You get these stark white highlights that make the lion pop against the dark background. It's a real contrast and it gives the whole scene a kind of dreamy, slightly surreal vibe. And that tiny gnat, this little squiggle challenging the big, powerful lion. The relationship between them is so dynamic and strange. Chagall always had this way of making the familiar feel a little off-kilter. You know, I think of him as being like Paul Klee, they both just make their own rules.