Marian Anderson 1961

Bela Petheo made this image of Marian Anderson using printmaking techniques. Look at how the texture works. It's all built from small scratches, like the entire picture is woven from threads of ink. The image feels like a memory or an echo, somehow distant. Take the area to the left of Anderson’s face. Here, the marks are like whispers, a flurry of tiny lines that suggest depth and shadow without ever quite resolving into a solid form. It’s a great example of how a process can shape the image. Petheo’s use of mark-making reminds me of the work of Kӓthe Kollwitz, both in its graphic intensity and its commitment to portraying the human condition. But where Kollwitz is often stark, Petheo has a certain soft focus. Both artists invite us to contemplate the complexities of emotion and representation, through the language of printmaking. It’s a kind of conversation across time, isn’t it?