Naoko Takahatake blogs about the exhibition Whistler’s Etchings: An Art of Suggestion at LACMA, on view through July 22, 2012.

Takahatake writes: "Whistler was disparaged as 'an artist of incomplete performance,' his Venice etchings having been 'done with a swiftness and dash that preclude anything like care and finish.'While many of the prints on view are indeed seemingly spontaneous in execution, at times resembling preliminary studies taken from life, Whistler continuously reworked his plates, fastidiously redefining details and often reinforcing areas of shading to compensate for the wear of the plate. His economy of means belies his great expense of labor."