Frans Masereel — "Aus dem Grotesk-Film" (From the Grotesque Film) — 1926 print
$ 23.76
Description
Frans Masereel — "Aus dem Grotesk-Film" (From the Grotesque Film) — 1926 print. Frans Masereel — "Aus dem Grotesk-Film" (From the Grotesque Film) — 1926. A century on, this image hasn't aged — it has clarified. Relief, line-block composition printed in 1926 'after' original works — drawings and woodcuts — by Masereel. Frans Masereel — "Aus dem Grotesk-Film" (From the Grotesque Film) — 1926 A century on, this image hasn't aged — it has clarified. Masereel's vision of America in the jazz age: a manic performer, a cigar-chomping industry boss, cabaret dancers, studio lights, and skyscrapers packed to the margins. Individual humans dissolved into the spectacle machine. He made this without ever visiting America, reconstructing it entirely from silent films and illustrated press. He got the feeling exactly right — because he wasn't capturing America. He was capturing the image of America that America was already exporting. A more unsettling kind of accuracy. Printed in Dresden by Petzschke & Gretschel, 1926. Plate 12 from a German publication of that year. Ivory paper, lightly toned at edges. Printed both sides as issued. Image strong and clean. Sheet 7.25 × 10 inches. Relief, line-block composition printed in 1926 'after' original works — drawings and woodcuts — by Masereel The jazz age and the algorithm age rhyme uncomfortably well. 1926 to 2026, the subject unchanged: individual humans dwarfed and scrambled by the machinery of entertainment, capital, and finance. Simultaneously quaint, ominous, and familiar.
