Afternoon Repast 1968

Jirí Balcar made this lithograph ‘Afternoon Repast’ at an undetermined date using a single muted sepia tone to build a scene of unsettling ambiguity. The figures are rendered without facial features, and the composition is built up with a stippled texture that feels both dense and fragile, a beautiful, quiet mess. The monochromatic palette emphasizes the material qualities of the printmaking process. Up close, you can see the variations in tone and texture, and the way Balcar coaxes depth and shadow from a single colour. The stippled effect I mentioned makes the figures appear almost spectral, like ghosts in a machine. Check out the way the lines of the table almost seem to dissolve into the background, leaving just the objects floating in space. It’s these little moments of uncertainty that give the print its melancholic mood, an atmosphere of introspection and longing. There's something about the faceless figures in Balcar’s work that reminds me of the psychological unease you find in the paintings of Francis Bacon, an emotional weight. Art, after all, isn’t about answers; it’s about the questions it provokes.