Horseman II 1956

Arthur Danto made "Horseman II" using printmaking, and it’s a fascinating study in contrasts. The black ink against the pale paper creates this stark, immediate impression, like a charcoal sketch but with the graphic punch of a print. Look closely, and you can see how Danto uses the ink—sometimes thick and pooling, other times broken into these delicate, scratchy lines. It’s like he’s wrestling with the material, letting the process itself dictate the image. The way the horse and rider dissolve into a flurry of marks at the bottom is particularly striking. It’s as if the subject is both emerging from and receding into the chaos of the medium, a dance between representation and abstraction. There's something here reminiscent of Goya's dark, atmospheric etchings, but with a more modern sensibility. It feels like an ongoing conversation.