Gezicht op Bosvoorde 1911

Rik Wouters made this print called 'Gezicht op Bosvoorde', with etching. What's cool about etching is how immediate it feels. It's like, you're thinking something, and then, bam, it's on the plate. It’s there. Looking at the surface of this, you can almost feel the scratch of the needle and the bite of the acid. There's a real physicality to it. Notice how some of the lines are darker and thicker, others are faint and broken, almost like a whispered secret. I am drawn to the way the details in the buildings and trees dissolve into a kind of dreamy haze the further back they go. It is almost like the artist is trying to capture the atmosphere of the place, not just a picture of it. This reminds me a little of James Ensor who was a contemporary of Wouters. Ensor also used etching to create these weird and wonderful worlds. It’s almost like they were both trying to use the same language to say something completely different. And isn’t that what art is all about?