My Move 1939

Abe Blashko made this lithograph, My Move, which might be from 1972, with stone and crayon. The scene is a smoky room, lit by a lamp, where some men play cards. What is striking is the way the light falls on the main character, bringing him forward, but obscuring the other figures in the background. The whole piece is about contrasts, between the smooth surface of the bald head and the hatched shadows around the eyes. The artist’s hand is clear in the tiny marks that build up the image, like the stippled haze of the smoke. The drawing reminds me of Daumier, with the gentle satire and concern for the human comedy. That card player looks pretty sure of himself. Is he bluffing? It's an ambiguous situation, a moment frozen in time that invites us to imagine what might happen next. The magic of art is in this openness, the way it allows different ways of seeing and thinking.