The Greeting 1922 - 1923

Marc Chagall created this etching, called 'The Greeting', with a dense network of tiny marks. I imagine him hunched over the plate, carefully building up tone and texture. Look at the way he's tilted the picture plane, almost like a cubist collage, but with a kind of folksy charm. The geometry feels a little off, maybe on purpose? It's like he's bending the rules of perspective to make room for feeling, for memory. The lines are a little scratchy, a little unsure, but full of life. You can feel him searching for the right way to say it. Is that a greeting, or a farewell, or both? A lot of artists, like Chagall, have been inspired by the work of other artists to create something new. His work is part of a larger conversation, stretching back in time and across cultures. And it’s still going on.