Salvadore Rosa c. 1964

This is Leonard Baskin’s etching, Salvadore Rosa, made sometime in the 20th century. Look at how Baskin scratches the plate! It’s so direct, you can imagine him pulling the tool across the surface. Nothing is hidden or blended; it’s all about the process here. The starkness of the black lines against the paper creates a real sense of depth. It's like the portrait emerges right out of the surface. See the way he renders the hair? It's a mess of tangled lines, kind of wild and untamed, and yet it all comes together to define the shape and texture. That tension between chaos and control is what makes the work so interesting. Baskin reminds me a lot of Käthe Kollwitz in his commitment to raw and expressive mark-making. Like Kollwitz, Baskin understood that art doesn't always have to be pretty, it just has to be true.