Foreboding 1936

Editor: Here we have Bernard Kassoy's "Foreboding" from 1936. It's a print, probably made with pencil and graphite. The mood is certainly heavy. You see a figure seemingly weighed down in front of this looming gas mask. What jumps out at you about this work? Curator: Well, the striking thing here is how Kassoy uses very traditional materials – graphite and pencil – to depict a distinctly modern anxiety related to industrial production. The image is produced by mechanical means, mirroring the very processes it critiques. Editor: Critique in what way? Curator: Look at the chained feet and the placement of the industrial stacks relative to the prone figure and looming gasmask. The person is being made to literally 'consume' the mechanism that offers protection, hinting at how labor is forced into accepting self-harm as necessary for survival in an industrialized economy. Even the method by which this is reproduced--as a print--implicates it in the broader capitalist processes it scrutinizes. Editor: So, it’s about how industrial production not only pollutes the environment but also traps individuals? Curator: Exactly. And notice how Kassoy doesn't just depict the *what*, but asks us to consider *how* these materials shape the message. The starkness of the graphite mirrors the bleak outlook presented. A question for you - if this were an oil painting on canvas, would your interpretation change? Editor: Probably! It would feel less immediate, perhaps more distant from the issues it represents. Using something mass producible as the final piece is part of the message. Curator: Precisely! That shift in medium invites a shift in how we understand labor, consumption, and the artist’s role. Editor: I never considered the printing medium itself to be such an important voice in the artwork. That changes things!