Retroussage Eiffel Tower 1976

This is Jim Dine’s Eiffel Tower—an etching on paper. Look at those marks! The whole image shimmers with the energy of scratching and rubbing. It's not just a picture of the tower; it’s like a memory of it, filtered through the artist's hand. I can imagine Jim Dine in the print shop, working the plate, smearing ink, wiping it away, then scratching back in. You have to think of the physicality of it – the body involved in pushing and pulling, revealing and concealing. The surface is alive with tiny movements, a blizzard of marks. See how the tower emerges from this haze, almost ghostlike. The light seems to come from within the image, glowing from the scraped surface. The title, "Retroussage," refers to a wiping technique that leaves a veil of ink on the surface. It’s a way of adding atmosphere, a kind of poetic murk. Painters are always looking at each other's work, riffing on ideas. Dine’s Eiffel Tower reminds me of Cy Twombly’s scribbled surfaces. Both artists embrace the messiness of process, letting the hand lead the eye. Painting is like that—an ongoing conversation across time, always open to new interpretations.