Snowy Fields 1933

Wanda Gág made this lithograph, Snowy Fields, sometime in the first half of the 20th century, using a black crayon on a stone plate to build up the image. It's all about process; the mark making feels really immediate. I love how the texture of the stone comes through. This gives the whole scene a sort of gritty, dreamlike quality. The trees on the right side are like dark, watchful figures and the sweep of the fields and rolling hills is so tactile. If you look closely at the lower right, where the stream runs, you can see how she's used a very fine, almost stippled effect to create shadow and depth. It almost feels like a memory, or a story being told through light and shadow. I see echoes of Edvard Munch in the way she uses those dark, expressive lines. But Gág brings her own unique sensibility to the landscape, a kind of quiet intensity, that makes this piece linger in your mind.