Les Petit Maisons (drypoint) 

Chaim Goldberg's "Les Petit Maisons" is a drypoint print. The artist scratched directly into a metal plate with a sharp needle. You can see the distinctive velvety texture of the lines, caused by the burr of metal thrown up by the needle. This burr catches the ink, creating a soft, rich effect. Because the burr wears down quickly during printing, drypoint editions are usually small. Printmaking occupies an interesting position in the art world. It's inherently reproducible, and therefore associated with democratic access to images, yet it also requires highly skilled labor. Goldberg's scene of small houses is particularly well-suited to the medium, which allows for intricate detail and a sense of intimate scale. The labor and skill involved, combined with the work's subject matter, gives us an important understanding of how prints can reflect the social and cultural contexts in which they're made.