Twee siervissen 1892 - 1951

Janus de Winter made this print of two ornamental fish, maybe sometime in the first half of the twentieth century, using etching. You can tell this was a process, not a single shot. It's got this amazing, slightly mottled surface, which happens with the acid bath used in etching. It makes me think about how the acid eats away the metal, a slow, deliberate kind of destruction. The lines are clear but they waver a little - it's hard to keep your hand steady when you're dragging that tool through the ground. Look at how he's rendered the plants at the bottom, just these wiggly lines, like he’s letting loose. It’s casual but deliberate, a dance between control and spontaneity. It reminds me a bit of work by Alfred Kubin, particularly that sense of weirdness and the macabre. Though, with de Winter, there is a bit more lightness. Art’s like a game of telephone with visuals, an ongoing conversation across time. And like any good conversation, it’s best when it leaves you pondering, not knowing everything for sure.