Maurice Pasternak
1985
21.63 x 31.63
mezzotint
edition: 85
Viewers are always curious about this image of 20 people seated -- all men. Why? Three of the men are looking over their shoulders toward the back. Are they impatient to see late arrivers? The seating seems to be pew like. Pasternak, like most artists, wants the viewer to bring their own interpretation to the image and is most circumspect to give an explanation. A church, a union hall, a political meeting -- which is it? The mood seems to be one of anxiety rather than celebration. The artist did answer why all men. He says that "he likes to create the tension of the image on the page. Putting women and men together unleashes a tension of its own" Maurice Pasternak usually creates surreal landscapes that include traditional male images along a canal. However, this traditional imagery is not organized or presented in a way that makes literal sense of the scene. This is an interior image created in 1985.
