Circus c. 1929

Katharine Schlater made this graphic print called ‘Circus’ using a woodblock, cutting into the surface to make this stark image. I imagine her carefully carving away the block, figuring out how to make those shapes work together, the black and white ying-yang of it all. You can really feel the artist thinking about form, like the curve of the clown’s body balanced by that crazy unicorn thing at the bottom. What do you think she was thinking about, doing all that work? Was it even work? Or was it the best kind of play? I love how the figures are stacked up, like a surrealist dream, where you can’t quite tell what’s what. It reminds me of Picasso's Cubist portraits, how he messes with perspective and makes you see things in a new way. It’s like she's in conversation with all these other artists, trying to figure out how to make something that’s both beautiful and a little bit strange.