Memory 1905

Aladar Korosfoi-Kriesch's 'Memory' is rendered with what looks like pen and ink. It's an intense graphic, and like memory itself, is composed of distinct lines and forms. It is also an engraving of a dreamlike vision. I am drawn to the way the drawing teeters between clarity and a more elusive quality. Take the figure of the angel, hunched over, wings spread wide. Her drapery folds around her, delineated with such fine lines, and yet she seems to be lost in thought. In contrast to the angel, there is the figure to the right, who appears rigid and upright, but whose dress is a mass of inky blacks. The snake at the bottom of the image also uses these blacks and whites to create its undulating form. The graphic quality of the work, the way it uses pure black and white, makes me think of other symbolists of the period such as Aubrey Beardsley or Edvard Munch. All of these artists were interested in ambiguity, as well as how images can suggest multiple readings.