Man's Dream 1935

Harry Sternberg made this black and white etching, Man's Dream, sometime in the 20th century, and it’s like peering into a night sky filled with…well, what *is* real? Sternberg's cross-hatched marks create a textured surface that almost feels like you could touch the clouds. The angel looks like he is flying through space, a very modern Icarus. There's a great tension between the soft and the hard elements. The dark sky is broken by bright pinpricks of stars. The hard, solid plane appears to fly through space. Look at how Sternberg renders the body of the angel, it is so alive, and solid, and then compare it to the delicate lines of the wings. This reminds me of the surrealist paintings of Yves Tanguy. Art always offers a space where such different ways of seeing, and experiencing, can co-exist.