Pantagruel: Chapter LXVII 1942

Curator: This is a woodcut titled "Pantagruel: Chapter LXVII" by Bernard Reder, created in 1942. The work depicts a scene seemingly lifted straight from Rabelais. Editor: My first impression? It's dense. Almost claustrophobic with its stark black-and-white contrasts, and those gnarled, exaggerated figures. The material quality almost makes you feel the press of the block. Curator: That dense quality you notice certainly mirrors the chaotic nature of Rabelais's writing and the turbulent social and political context of the 1940s when it was produced. There’s a sense of societal pressure. Editor: Right, I can't help but focus on the labor. Each gouge and slice is visible, isn't it? Think about the artist meticulously removing material from that woodblock, wrestling this chaotic vision into being. Curator: Absolutely. And think about how this kind of printmaking democratizes art, even critical commentary. Editions of prints allowed Reder to reach a wider audience, a politically engaged public, at a critical historical moment. Editor: Democratization yes, but it also makes me think about distribution in times of conflict. The circulation of imagery, of ideas, almost a samizdat made tangible through craft. Curator: And there's so much to unpack! The symbolism, I think, really taps into the anxiety and absurdity felt in the 40’s but its content reaches back into this specific literary, and therefore intellectual history. Reder, who came to New York as a refugee in the late 30’s knew this milieu and gave us such an immediate material and allegorical rendering of this. Editor: So much expression rendered in such unforgiving material and at such an ominous time in modern history. Curator: A compelling reminder of the intersection between social forces and material expression. Editor: Indeed. You leave with an appreciation of how process shapes content— how art really embodies history.