In the Hammock 1945

Alfredo Zalce made this drawing, In the Hammock, with, I imagine, charcoal or pencil. Look at how all these marks combine to create the forms. It's artmaking as a process of layering and building. The texture in this work is really created by all those lines. There's a sort of rough, tactile feel to the whole image. In the background the hatching creates these almost claustrophobic gray zones, but then you have the much more loosely rendered floor which almost feels like you could walk right into it. I love the ambiguity of the composition, how it's not quite clear what space they are in. And then there's that child perched on the woman’s belly, arms raised, like they’re surfing, it’s an image of pure joy. In many ways, this drawing reminds me of the work of Kathe Kollwitz. It’s honest, it's raw, and it speaks to the fundamental human experience of joy and care. It embraces ambiguity over any fixed or definitive meaning, like the best art does.