Balcony Railing 1935 - 1942

This is Arelia Arbo's "Balcony Railing," a print of some kind, made sometime in the 20th century, I'd guess. It's all about the push and pull of black and white, like a high-contrast photograph, and the way shapes emerge from flat planes. Arbo really embraces the material qualities here. The surface isn't trying to trick you into thinking it's anything but ink on paper. What I like most is the slippage between representation and abstraction. Look at the way the shadows create these unexpected shapes, turning familiar architecture into something almost unrecognizable. The lamp post in the foreground, for instance, is so solid and present, but then the shadows do this amazing dance around it, flattening the space. It reminds me of those early modernist prints, like the German Expressionists, where the world is rendered in stark, graphic terms. It's like Arbo is saying, "Here's what I saw, but also, here's what it felt like." And that's what makes it so compelling, you know?