Viba 1929

Gerald Leslie Brockhurst made "Viba", an etching, at some point in his career. Look at how he creates tones; it's not just about light and dark, but about the density of lines, a real dance of mark-making. I think of artmaking as a conversation, a back-and-forth between what you intend and what the material does. The etching has this velvety texture, a result of the physical act of incising lines into a metal plate. See the way he models the fabric of Viba’s robe, those tiny strokes that somehow give it weight and shimmer. Brockhurst had a real talent for texture; you can almost feel the smoothness of her skin against the patterned robe. It reminds me a little of some of Whistler’s etchings, that same attention to detail and tonal range, but Brockhurst brings his own flavor. Art’s just an ongoing exchange of ideas, right? Anyway, this piece embraces ambiguity. What’s she thinking? What’s outside that window? We can’t know for sure.