IN THE SHEETS OF THE NIGHT 1966

Ernst Fuchs made this print, "In the Sheets of the Night," using blue ink and a whole lot of imagination. Look at how he's built up this garden of earthly delights. I imagine him, hunched over the plate, digging into the metal with his tools, finding new forms, new erotic dreams, and new ways to make a complicated world. Those figures, intertwined and reaching for fruit, are like a classical frieze, but with a psychedelic twist. Fuchs is pulling from all sorts of places, right? You can see hints of the old masters mixed with something more mystical. He’s like an alchemist, transmuting the base metal of tradition into pure visual gold. The whole thing feels like a fever dream rendered in exquisite detail. And just like dreams, it's not about figuring out what it all *means*, but about letting yourself get swept up in the flow. After all, isn't that what art's all about?