Ignorance is Bliss 20 - 1828

Curator: George Cruikshank's "Ignorance is Bliss" presents us with a series of vignettes, each seemingly self-contained, yet contributing to a larger narrative. The etching uses the Chine collé technique. What strikes you first about it? Editor: The starkness. It's all so finely etched, giving it a raw, almost journalistic feel, like scenes captured in a harsh light. You can almost smell the printer's ink. Curator: Cruikshank was a master of satire, wasn't he? And the phrase “Ignorance is Bliss” itself—such a potent symbol of willful blindness, repeated across cultures. Editor: Precisely. The arrangement makes me consider the labor invested. Think of the etching process, the acid, the press. Each scene, a controlled, deliberate act of commentary on societal mores. Curator: It seems Cruikshank is suggesting that innocence, or perhaps naivete, is a shield against the harsher realities of life—a theme that resonates even today. Editor: Absolutely. Seeing these vignettes, laid bare by the etching, makes me think about who is truly benefiting from this blissful ignorance and at what cost.