Guinea fowl 1917

Here's a Guinea fowl made by Jan Mankes, probably in his studio, using etching and a whole lot of tiny dots. I can imagine Mankes making this, bent over a plate, patiently building up the bird’s form dot by dot. It's painstaking work. Look at the way the light falls across the Guinea fowl’s feathers! The contrast between the dark background and the bird's speckled plumage makes the fowl stand out, kind of luminous, like it's emerging from the darkness. You can sense the quiet atmosphere, a kind of stillness and the close attention to detail. It's like he's trying to capture the very essence of this creature. Mankes was part of a community of artists, all looking at each other's work, all feeding off similar influences. What I find interesting is the way Mankes manages to make something so solid and present out of something as fleeting as light and shadow. We are all standing on the shoulders of giants. Every painting is a conversation with the past and a proposition for the future. It’s like, what can we do with this crazy medium? How can we make it new?