Country Dance 1940

Jenne Magafan made this lithograph, called Country Dance, with a real sense of movement, like she’s trying to catch something fleeting. I love the range of tones she gets just from black ink! The way she builds up the darks around the edges, especially near that window, really pushes the light forward, making the dancers seem to pop off the page. Look how she uses these tiny, energetic marks to describe the folds in the women’s dresses as they twirl. It’s like she’s not just drawing fabric, but the feeling of a dance, the energy of the music. It makes me think of Kathe Kollwitz, another artist who wasn’t afraid to use black and white to capture the raw energy of human experience. Like all great art, this print embraces the beauty of imperfection, inviting us to feel the joy of the dance along with the figures in the picture.