Buy War Bonds c. 1940s

Joseph John Paul Meert made this print called 'Buy War Bonds', and it feels like he did it with a real sense of immediacy. Look at the bold colours and how they are laid down – it’s all about process, you know? There's a kind of raw, almost folksy quality to the textures, the way the image has been built up in layers of flat colour, but not quite lining up to the edges of forms. Notice the way the ochre colour in the apron of the central figure creates a subtle glow, making the figure almost jump forward off the surface of the paper. The faces are especially interesting, aren’t they? The way the light falls feels both naturalistic and also slightly unnatural. I see a connection with the German Expressionists in the way Meert renders the ordinary with such vivid emotion. Art’s like a conversation, right? We all borrow, we all transform. There’s no one right way to understand a piece; it’s about what it stirs in you.