Pipes of Pan #3 1958

Ernest Bradfield Freed made "Pipes of Pan #3", a print in black and white, and you can tell that the making of it was a real process. With those stark contrasts of black and white, there's no hiding here, no soft blending. Each cut and mark is there, deliberate and bold. It's like the artist is saying, "Here it is, the raw energy of the idea." The shapes are geometric and dynamic, almost cubist. Check out the way the figure is constructed from these angular planes, it feels like a deconstruction and reconstruction all at once. What’s great about a print like this is that it reveals the hand of the artist through the material. When I look at the lower section, where the lines are close together, it speaks to the rhythm of the artist's hand as they carved away. I'm reminded a little of Max Beckmann, with that same interest in bold, simplified forms. It’s this quality that makes the piece so interesting, its ability to embrace ambiguity, offering multiple interpretations rather than fixed meanings.