Entrance 1912

Bror Julius Olsson Nordfeldt made this print, “Entrance” using etching, that is to say, with acid on a metal plate. The whole image feels very delicate, doesn't it? He’s used a very light touch to describe this neoclassical building and the crowd assembled before it. There’s a sense of activity, but also quietude. He varies the weight of the marks in the sky and the shadows that define the architecture, creating a kind of shimmering effect. Look how Nordfeldt renders the figures on the steps; they become a kind of dark mass. These looser areas are juxtaposed with the details of the building’s facade. Nordfeldt seems to me like an American modernist, like Marsden Hartley, or maybe even Milton Avery. He is interested in taking European ideas about picture-making and giving them a new spin. Art is all about such conversations, ongoing exchanges of ideas that don't give us fixed meanings, but rather, invite us to engage with the world in different ways.