Great Broken Wing 1963

This lithograph, "Great Broken Wing," was made by John Hultberg, who died in 2005. Lithography is a printmaking process using a flat stone or metal plate. The artist applies an image using oil-based crayons or inks. The stone is then treated to allow ink to adhere only to the image. It's a labor-intensive process with roots in commercial printing. In this piece, the stark contrast between light and shadow creates a dramatic, almost dreamlike quality. The forms suggest fragments of a landscape, perhaps industrial, with a broken quality that hints at disruption. The stark, almost industrial, use of black and white emphasizes the graphic nature of the print. Consider the immense skill required to achieve such nuanced tones and textures through lithography. Hultberg elevates a process often associated with mass production into a medium for profound artistic expression. This blurs the lines between craft and fine art.