Veteran 1936

Irving Marantz made this woodcut print called Veteran. The heavy black ink and the marks left by the wood cutting tool seem to weigh on the image. I imagine Marantz carefully cutting away at the woodblock, each gouge a deliberate act to shape the image and give it form. He makes me think of Käthe Kollwitz, who used printmaking to convey a sense of collective experience and emotion. There's a deep, resonant darkness in this image, but also some light. The figure of the veteran is rendered in bold, stark strokes, with a hand holding a small child up in the air almost as if it is being offered to the world. The man seems burdened, but also defiant, with a desire to protect future generations despite the violence he has seen. I wonder if he hoped this image might transcend its own time and place, reaching out to viewers across years and wars.