Self-Portrait 1971

This is Morris Atkinson Blackburn’s self-portrait in linocut, and it’s interesting to see an artist looking at himself in this stark, black and white medium. The texture of the linocut, those fine white lines carved into the black, create a play of light and shadow that's super dynamic. Look at the lower-right corner of the image, where the lines are so dense they almost vibrate. It reminds me that artmaking is a physical process. Blackburn isn’t just representing an image; he’s wrestling with this block, digging into it, leaving traces of his labor and thoughts. I'm also thinking of artists like Max Beckmann, who used printmaking to explore similar themes of selfhood and identity. But with Blackburn, there's this raw, almost vulnerable quality, a sense of being caught in the act of self-reflection. And like all good art, it asks us to look closer, to question what we think we know.