Spectators (Les Spectateurs) 1922

André Dunoyer de Segonzac made this print, 'Spectators', with etching on paper. You know, looking at these two men, I can feel Segonzac's hand moving across the plate. See how he captures their profiles with such economy? The guy in the cap, his face a cluster of quick strokes, versus the other with his cigarette and slicked-back hair, a bit more refined, but both rendered with this amazing directness. What might he have been thinking as he scratched these lines into the metal? Maybe he saw them at a cafe and quickly sketched them on a napkin, then later transformed it into this beautiful print. The beauty of a line is that it can be both descriptive and expressive; Segonzac's are like little vibrations on the page. It makes me want to grab a plate and needle and try to catch someone's essence in a few well-placed marks. It’s this kind of exchange, across time, that keeps us artists going, riffing off each other, trying to say something new.