The Arts Ball (Fiesta)

The four Horace Brodzky relief prints (see Accession no. 2011.19, 2011.18, 2011.20) were cut by the artist in 1914 or 1919. They are from a portfolio of nineteen figurative linocuts Brodzky published in New York in 1920. These works present a dramatic use of white and black in the formation of the abstracted compositions.

After cutting and gouging the flat surface of the linoleum block to create his design, Brodzky then transferred the ink laid down onto the surface of the linoleum block onto the paper sheet. The un-inked portions of the block—the areas cut away below the block’s surface—reveal the bright cream paper beneath. The black ink—on the raised lines and planes of the surface of the cut block—emphatically established outlines and other compositional details. The stark contrast of black and white in the printed image creates the effect of dissolving forms—paradoxically at once stable designs and shifting passages of splintered shapes.