Mexican Panel 1956

Bernard Kohn made this print, Mexican Panel, from an unknown date, using monochrome ink on paper. The whole image is built from small, short marks, giving it a rich, textured look even though it's just black and white. It's like he's building up these different scenes, one mark at a time. I keep coming back to the architecture in this piece, especially the buildings and mountains, which seem to grow out of the marks. They have this solid, weighty feel, yet they're made of nothing but tiny lines. If you look closely at the top panel, the details in the mountain are so laboriously rendered. The marks are closely packed together and then spread out which gives the illusion of light and shadow. It reminds me of some of the WPA artists, who were also interested in showing the landscape and people of America in a direct and unpretentious way. But Kohn brings his own eye and his marks to the scene. It reminds us that art is always a conversation, an exchange, never a final statement.