The Magic Garden 1953 - 1955

Louise Nevelson made this print, ‘The Magic Garden,’ using etching, aquatint and engraving. There are these dark, tonal shapes, like a garden at twilight, full of mysterious forms. I imagine her hunched over the plate, and that acid biting into the metal. Look at the face staring out at us—the eyes and the set mouth—its expression is unreadable. The plate has been wiped, and scratched, then bitten again with acid. It’s a dance, a dialogue. What I like is the way it’s both abstract and figurative. I keep thinking about Gorky, how he’s present in so many artist’s practices after him. The way it merges landscape and figuration, like a biomorphic dream. Each shape is full of movement, hinting at a secret inner life, all flowing and interlinking.