The Capstan 1930

John Theodore Edward Stoll made this print called 'The Capstan' using etching on paper. It's a flurry of lines showing sailors cranking the capstan! I'm imagining Stoll, squinting, bending over the plate, pushing the needle with the heel of his hand, again and again, like drawing with a sewing machine. Maybe he was obsessed with the patterns made by ropes, the weave and weight of them. Did he ever feel overwhelmed trying to capture all that detail with such unforgiving tools? There is a lovely vertigo in the scene, the sailors almost like cogs in a machine. I’m drawn to how the repetitive circular motion is conveyed in this image. Look at the light falling down like rain, and how it makes the whole scene shimmer. I like to think about how artists are in an ongoing conversation, each riffing on what came before. It’s not about fixed meanings, it’s an open invitation to see things anew.