
Minna Agins
The three-decade-old spectre of sociological propaganda rises again in Agins’ woodcuts and intaglios. The latter, awkward and message-filled, are a sad disaster; the technical process of etching is beyond her. The human form is rendered as a group of static, bulbous lumps contorting in sentimental, involved attitudes, completed by eyes turned heavenward. The figures are outlined by an imprisoning, heavy line which attempts to rescue them from a swamp of aquatints. Her ineptitude evidently prevents her from making even a cleanly wiped plate.
Superior broadsides as American Family, At Water’s Edge