Lumberjacks

Anton Refregier made this woodcut, Lumberjacks, and like many prints, it exists somewhere between image and object. The textures of the wood are alive in it; you can almost feel the grain and even imagine the artist using their tools to carve the scene into the block. See how the brown ink isn't just a color, but a material presence? It sits on the surface, a little like heavy syrup, giving weight to the figures and the dense forest around them. I’m drawn to the way the artist uses these parallel lines, like the hatching on the lumberjack's arms, to create volume and shadow. It reminds me a bit of some of the WPA artists, maybe someone like Jacob Lawrence, who was also interested in portraying scenes of labor and everyday life with this graphic sensibility. What I appreciate is the fact that the image is not trying to trick you; it lays bare its own construction, celebrating the labor of its making.