Skater 1994

Robert Keyser made this print, Skater, in the twentieth century. It looks like it was made with a kind of wood-cut or linocut process. Keyser's skater looks like a Cubist Picasso figure, or maybe even a Giacometti sculpture, if you imagine it in three dimensions. The lines are thick and confident, with soft corners that give the image a sense of movement. The composition is structured with hard lines, echoing the form of the figure in a way that contains the energy and dynamism of the skater's pose, like the walls of a skate park. Look at the way the figure is broken down into geometric shapes, almost like a puzzle. It's not a realistic representation, but it captures the essence of the skater's form and movement. I love the way the artist uses abstraction to convey a sense of energy and motion, it reminds me of the work of Stuart Davis. Ultimately, this piece invites us to see the world in new ways, to find beauty and meaning in unexpected places, and to embrace the ambiguities of life.