Inferno Series - G 1961

Rico Lebrun's "Inferno Series - G" is a print of complex lines seemingly born from a moment of frenzy and then tempered by careful observation. The frenetic quality reminds me a little of late Goya. Look closely, and you'll see how Lebrun uses the scratchy, anxious marks of the print to define these grotesque figures. There’s a beautiful tension between the abstract quality of the mark-making and the representational elements. See the bat-like figures towards the top of the picture, seemingly fused with the figure below. Do these creatures represent the demons of hell, or the torments of the mind? I think the beauty here lies in the ambiguity – in the way that Lebrun welcomes these multiple readings. It's as if the medium itself is part of the message. Like the subconscious given form. A space where uncertainty and complexity are not problems to be solved but realities to be explored.