The Home of the Baa Laam 1913

Joseph Pennell made this etching, The Home of the Baa Laam, at an unknown date. The marks! Look at how Pennell coaxes all this tone out of simple lines. There’s an energy in the hatching, how it models the forms with such a limited palette. The texture of the rock is incredible, isn't it? Notice how the weight of the lines shifts the whole picture, turning shadow into substance. The way he builds up the darks with all those tiny, close-packed strokes feels really physical to me. The architecture on top looks both solid and fragile. I see a bit of Piranesi in this, that Italian dude who was obsessed with imaginary prisons. Both of them use line to create these crazy, impossible spaces. Art's just a big conversation, right? Always echoing, always changing.