Judge 1928

Dwight Case Sturges made this small black and white etching called 'Judge', and it's all about marks. I can almost see him, the artist, hunched over the plate, carefully scratching lines to catch the light, to build up the forms. The judge is looming, watching from above, and those scribbly lines, they aren't just descriptive. They're like nervous energy, as if the artist wants to capture every detail, every shadow. It feels really immediate, the perspective a bit tilted. I wonder, was Sturges thinking about Daumier when he made this? It has that same sense of wanting to capture the moment. It is an image that's alive, and I get the sense that artists are constantly chatting to each other, even across the ages. This piece really shows how the simplest marks can be such strong storytellers, right?