Basketball c. 1938

This is Joseph Vogel’s ‘Basketball’. I reckon it’s a screenprint, and that means the image was built up layer by layer. The color palette is so cool - the turquoise, mauve, and green all play against the inky dark background, kinda like how the floodlights illuminate players on a basketball court. It makes me think about the joy of playing, pushing yourself, the sense of rivalry, and the collective energy of the game. I am imagining Vogel in his studio, carefully choosing each color, squeegeeing the paint, and slowly building the image. The figures are so stylized that they’re almost like symbols for players. They remind me of some of the WPA prints from the ‘30s and the bold graphic style of someone like Jacob Lawrence. It’s like he’s capturing the essence of basketball, not just a literal scene. There’s a conversation happening between artists across time, each responding to the world in their own way, picking up where others have left off, and always pushing forward.