Prøveplade: Fire hoveder 1897 - 1901

This small plate of heads was made by the Danish artist Frans Schwartz, sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. It's an etching, meaning that the artist would have drawn into a waxy ground on a metal plate. That plate was then submerged in acid, which bit away the exposed lines. Consider the process here. It is indirect; unlike drawing, where the hand is in immediate contact with the surface, here the artist is working through intermediary materials. This allows for a graphic, almost industrial quality. And, of course, it allows for multiples. Though this is a ‘proof plate,’ meaning it was a trial run, the very idea of printmaking is to produce an image over and over. The image itself shows a range of people, from fresh-faced youths to a wizened older man. In its way, the print embodies the modern condition, where individual expression meets mechanical reproduction head on.