Perseus Beheading Medusa, VII 1945

André Racz made this print, Perseus Beheading Medusa, VII, using blues and greens to create a strange mythological scene. I can almost feel the artist working on the plate, trying things out, layering, wiping away, trying again. The color palette is so evocative, like diving into deep water. There’s Perseus, holding Medusa’s head, which, in this version, looks a little like an alien. I wonder what Racz was thinking, putting these figures together, myth and sci-fi all in one. There's a surreal quality here that reminds me a bit of Gorky's more figurative work, that sense of dream logic and transformation. But there’s something really satisfying about that simple graphic quality. The way the dark blues and greens sit next to each other, creating depth and movement with such minimal means, it’s like he’s reminding us that painting, and printmaking, is an act of translation. We’re all just trying to make sense of the world.