Survivor

Description

The sharp lines and rough, jagged shapes seen in this woodcut by Richard Bosman suggest a violent technique, which is part of the excitement of his images. Harking back to the handling of this medium by the German Expressionists, the artist leaves traces of his struggle against the resistant wood block. In many of Bosman's prints the physicality of the making of the work serves as an analogy to the anxiety-provoking circumstances depicted. In "Survivor", a man appears to have jumped from a height. A narrative is barely suggested, though in the near absence of clues, the viewer is left with no clear context with which to understand the image. Further, there is little indication of the artist's own feelings, aside from the expressive cutting of the block. Indeed, as Bosman revealed recently in a lecture at the Museum of Art, the title "Survivor" refers not to the image of the man himself, but to the print, which exists, or survives, in only a small edition because the pine block was so soft that it broke after ten impressions. Thus the printmaker's title adds an element or irony to an already ambiguous image.