The Audience 1946

This etching, The Audience, was made by Eric Algot Bengtz sometime between 1907 and 1973. He built it up with a network of fine lines, a real labor of love! You can almost feel him working the plate, trying to coax the image out, a little like life drawing, following the form. Look at how the lines of the curtains at the top left become denser to give us shadow. The longer I look at this, the more I think about how Bengtz has captured the feeling of being in an audience, looking up and ahead. There is a real sense of people packed together in a dark space. What I like about this piece is the way the artist has used line to create a mood of expectation, of people ready to react. And the dark mood of the piece reminds me a little of Edvard Munch, he was also interested in the psychology of human experience. It’s great when art can show us something about ourselves.