Little Joe 1935

Will Barnet made this etching called 'Little Joe' using black ink to describe the weight of a kid sitting on a chair. The dark grey almost blends into black. The figure is not quite emerging out of the ground; it is as if they are both made of the same stuff. I imagine Barnet was maybe thinking about light, and how to get the most drama with the least amount of stuff. The expressiveness of the lines are all that he needs to create the feeling of a tender portrait; it looks like the kind of drawing you’d make when someone is sitting right in front of you. The etched lines have a funny way of feeling very physical, like you could touch the lines with your fingers. You can almost feel the artist digging into the plate. And in that way, artists are always in conversation, always building on what came before. Painting, and drawing too, are embodied expressions. It’s open to all kinds of interpretations, of course, and that’s how it should be.