The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 27, 2024

Man Overboard (Drowning Man)

Man Overboard (Drowning Man)

1981
(Australian, born India 1944)
Catalogue raisonné: Stevens 24
Location: not on view

Description

Beginning in the mid-1970s, the desire for more tactile surfaces led some American printmakers to revive the use of woodcut. Like the German Expressionists at the beginning of the 20th century, Bosman likes his prints to have a handmade, chiseled appearance, reflecting the ragged gouged areas and splintered edges left on the woodblock. This powerful, agitated style of gestural immediacy parallels the emotional content of the desperate situations he depicts. Although the narrative in Bosman's scenes is not specified, the allusion to danger and a mysterious aura provoke the viewer's imagination. The figure in Man Overboard, dressed in a suit and tie but shoeless, plummets headfirst toward moonlit waters beside an ocean liner. Frozen in time between the unknown cause and climax of the situation, the image remains unresolved and full of suspense.
  • Against the Grain: Woodcuts from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 17-November 9, 2003).
  • {{cite web|title=Man Overboard (Drowning Man)|url=false|author=Richard Bosman|year=1981|access-date=27 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1990.124