After Dark 1935

Richard Bennett made this black and white linocut, called 'After Dark'. I love how this image looks both stark and soft at the same time. I can imagine Bennett inking the plate, carefully carving those lines into the lino, creating these guys standing around, a little rough and ready in the dark. It makes me think about light and dark, like the way Barnett Newman was obsessed with the ‘zip’. See how the light catches the cowboy’s clothes? Or how the second cowboy disappears into the dark? What were they talking about? What just happened? Or is about to happen? For me, artists are always talking to each other, even across time. Bennett has made something that makes me think and feel. It gets me excited to go back to the studio.