Nieuwjaarswens van Kornél Révész 1936

Kornél Révész made this New Year's greeting card as an etching, sometime around 1936, and it’s all about mark-making. Look at the way he's built up these tiny, almost frantic lines to create form. The card depicts a chubby cherub gleefully riding a pig—talk about good luck! There are these little animals sort of tumbling through the air as if he’s scattering good fortune. You can almost feel the scratch of the etching needle across the plate. It's a delicate dance of pressure and release. It's not just about the image; it's about the process made visible. The texture and physicality of the medium give it a life of its own. It's as if the image emerges from the materials themselves. This feels a bit like the playful graphics you see in the Vienna Secession—Gustav Klimt and the boys—but with a darker, stranger edge. Art's an ongoing conversation, right? Full of echoes and weird connections. It’s never a fixed thing.