Totem 1949

James V. Harvey made this print called ‘Totem’ sometime around 1949. It’s a simple brown print, with a soft, velvety texture. The image is of a face, maybe a mask. It looks like it was made by cutting into a block, which is then inked and printed onto paper, the old-fashioned way. The blocky quality makes it feel honest and straightforward. Look at how the lines are thick and thin, rough and smooth, not trying to be too perfect. That gives it a cool, handmade vibe. There’s a mark where a chunk has come out of the matrix, which creates a white space where the eyes are - mistakes and accidents can be so beautiful! It reminds me a little of some of the work of the German Expressionist printmakers, like Heckel or Kirchner. They had a similar way of making images that felt both ancient and modern, primal and sophisticated all at once. I love art that knows it can be more than one thing at the same time.