Was tun? 1962

This etching, 'Was tun?' by Walter Rauch, presents a bewildering, fantastical scene in monochrome. You can almost feel the artist scratching away at the plate, building up these intricate textures and nightmarish forms. I wonder, what was Rauch thinking when he made this? The title translates to ‘What to do?’ and you can certainly sense a feeling of unease in the density of the imagery. There's a bird-like figure, a human form, a kind of dragon perhaps. Each one seems to morph into the other, bound together in a kind of symbolic dance, almost like Bosch, but with a more modern sensibility. You can see how Rauch builds up layer after layer of marks. And maybe that’s part of the point, you know? The process of creating this image is an exploration of anxiety itself. The act of making becomes a way of trying to figure things out, even if you never quite arrive at a neat conclusion. And that’s something that I really respond to in Rauch’s practice.