Mexico - Oaxaca Musicians

Max Pollak

This composition is done primarily using etching; the sandpaper aquatint, used in this image of a gathering of musicians playing in the entryway of a plaza, is tonal. He uses it to create a frame around the image, within the platemark, which creates the effect for the viewer of looking through a window at an intimate gathering. He also manages to highlight a parrot held by the woman in the lower right. Pollak's attention to the small things and the quiet humor he sometimes displayed in his work are on full display in this piece.

In the lower image, between the title and the signature, Pollak added a small "remarque" as an homage to the past, a Zapotec funerary urn portrait. The Zapotec and Mixtec cultures flourished where present-day Oaxaca is located.

As three musicians play their instruments a group of children assembles beneath the ancient stone archway to listen and fantasize.