Jitterbug Swing c. 1939

David Burke’s ‘Jitterbug Swing’ is a woodcut print of a group of jitterbug dancers in shades of teal, mauve, and red. I can imagine Burke digging into that block of wood, figuring out how to abstract the wildness of bodies moving to music into something flat but still full of energy. The composition feels so dense, like the dancers are all crammed together—some faces are serenely looking on, but the rest are caught mid-scream. There’s a beautiful awkwardness to the angular shapes and the clunky way the figures are layered. It kind of reminds me of those old German Expressionist woodcuts, like the ones Kirchner or Heckel would have made. But Burke brings his own spin, a kind of quirky American sensibility. I love how the different colors overlap and bleed into each other, creating a sense of depth and movement. It’s like he’s saying, yeah, life is messy and chaotic, but isn’t it also kind of beautiful?