Embarkation For Cockaigne 1937

Julien Alberts created this black and white print, Embarkation for Cockaigne. The sharp, decisive marks and stark contrasts immediately create a sense of unease. Look at how Alberts used line to suggest texture and depth. I can only imagine Alberts, bent over the printing plate, etching away, building this topsy-turvy world, a world of both dream and nightmare. Look at the piano player, or the woman on the chimney—what could Alberts have been thinking when he composed this bizarre scene? How is it that something so dark can be infused with a quirky, playful, almost comical sensibility? Alberts is working here in a mode similar to other artists like Max Beckmann and Otto Dix. All of them, in their own ways, created strange dreamlike worlds and found that art could be a vehicle for both social commentary and introspective exploration. Art can have a dark and unsettling quality, yet offer moments of strange beauty.