Strange Funeral c. 1937

Donato Rico made this print, Strange Funeral, sometime in the mid-20th century. What really grabs me here are the sharp contrasts – the bold, black lines carving out these intense figures and scenes. It's like Rico is digging into the wood, wrestling with it to pull out these stark, emotional moments. I'm drawn to the area where the mourners stand – their faces hidden, their bodies hunched over in grief. The way Rico uses tiny dots to create the texture of their clothing makes them almost dissolve into the darkness. It’s as if their sorrow is consuming them, blurring the lines between their physical selves and the surrounding void. Rico’s work reminds me of some of the German Expressionist printmakers, like Käthe Kollwitz. But where Kollwitz focuses on the pain of the collective, Rico seems to be exploring something more personal, a kind of interior darkness. There's no easy reading here, no simple answers. It invites us to sit with the ambiguity, to feel the weight of the unknown.