Markt (Market) 1928

Paul Gangolf made this drypoint etching, titled "Markt," which means market, on a copper plate, and then transferred it to paper. I see the artist, perhaps in the 1920s, bent over the plate, scratching away, thinking. It is hard and physical labor. The scene is of a crowd of naked figures—well, not exactly naked, some of them wear hats, or turbans, and are they in the city or the country? What do you make of their expressions? It reminds me of the German Expressionists’ interest in raw, unfiltered emotion, or maybe even of Picasso’s brothel scene in "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon." They are all simplified, but there is something so human and exposed about the marks, so awkward and searching. Look at that line around the lips of the figure in the center, the way the belly button is a cross; it is almost like a child’s drawing. Artists like Gangolf, and Picasso, were in constant dialogue with one another, even if they never met. It's an embodied language they’re all speaking!