Christ et Disciples 1936

Editor: This is Georges Rouault's "Christ et Disciples" from 1936, rendered in ink, and it's a print. It has this really heavy, almost oppressive atmosphere about it. The figures are so simplified and dark, and the lines really draw your eye to the stark composition. What do you see in this piece? Curator: What interests me immediately is Rouault’s choice of materials. Why ink? Why a print? Mass production wasn't really the goal of many artists at the time. It's about accessibility, the breakdown of high art's elitism. Ink, particularly, evokes the printed word, disseminating information – challenging art’s unique auric value. Editor: That’s interesting. I hadn't considered that choice as making art more accessible to everyday people. So, you see this choice of medium itself as a commentary on the consumption of art? Curator: Precisely. Think of the social context: 1936. Mass movements, political upheaval. The reproducibility of printmaking allows ideas to spread more freely, reaching beyond the traditional art world. The rugged, almost crude quality of the line work underscores a rejection of bourgeois refinement. He emphasizes labor in the image's materiality. What purpose do the obscured human figures play? Editor: Now that you point that out, I can almost imagine him highlighting social inequalities. I always assumed Expressionism was more about the inner, psychological state, but thinking of the art itself as something that addresses production or consumption seems entirely different. I hadn't made that connection. Curator: Right. Rouault is prompting us to ask about not just how to make a print, but why – what purpose it serves in the world, for what group. Editor: I never considered that Expressionism could speak of the socio-economic conditions by means of how it's being made, that the form is itself a social comment. Thank you.