TWO BATHERS AND OCTOPUS, (BLUE VERSION)

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on August 18, 2012 at 10:11am

Curator’s Comment:

           

There’s a refreshing vitality to this image- I wholly appreciate the bold graphic marks of the linocut.  The slow, angular contours work beautifully with the compartmentalization and active symmetry of the image.  The print’s relieved balance is visually satisfying, as slight alterations in the imagery stops the work from being completely bilateral and even.  Specifically, the interpreted form of the octopus forces a visual continuity along the horizontal plane.  I can’t decide if its presence is intended to be foreboding, as it looms large just off the periphery of the figures looking out at still water, or if it is purely a formal device introducing organic tendrils and pattern to echo the curvilinear forms of the figures.  But while I like the skillful hand coloring, I’m not convinced I wouldn’t prefer to see the white of the paper.  A straight black and white version would surely inject an abstract starkness into the otherwise representational scene.  That being said, I do enjoy the cool blue-greens traveling between the defined sections, from the open water to the highlights in the figures hair.  The solid black frame along the borders of the image also helps to connect the linear marks of the bather’s suits and long black edge of the horizon.