Camp of Company F c. 1917

Bror Julius Olsson Nordfeldt made this print, Camp of Company F, and whatever else was going on, it seems like he was interested in how marks can build a world. The textures are so amazing! Look closely at the trees, how they frame the tents nestled in the background. The lines are so dense in the foliage, like a scribbled frenzy, but then they open up on the smooth skin of the tree trunks. It's like Nordfeldt is using the etching needle to feel his way around the forms. I love the way the light filters through the leaves, creating these dappled patterns on the ground. You can almost hear the rustling of the wind through the trees. This reminds me a bit of some of Käthe Kollwitz's prints, that same commitment to using line to convey both form and emotion, a conversation across time, where the work embraces ambiguity and multiple interpretations over fixed meanings.