Gropper at Work c. 1941

William Gropper made this print, Gropper at Work, using etching in black ink on paper. It's got that lovely grainy texture that only comes from the push and pull of acid on metal. I can feel Gropper's breath on the paper as he sketches out the studio. Look at the artist himself, hunched over, intently marking the canvas. What is he thinking about? Is he solving a problem, or is he just lost in the sauce? The scene is kind of claustrophobic, isn't it? Shelves crammed with stuff, and then this ghostly figure looming on the canvas. I imagine Gropper's studio was a place of constant experimentation, where ideas came alive through trial and error, where forms emerged and dissolved and then re-emerged again. Artists are always in conversation with each other, and with the past, building on what came before, but always pushing toward something new. It’s a constant back and forth between intention and accident, a kind of dance.