Two Women 1914

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this woodcut print, "Two Women," with color and line that feels so immediate, so urgent. It's like he's trying to get something down as quickly as possible. Look at the figure in the foreground: that ochre tone, the way the black lines define her form so economically, but still with a sense of weight. Her hands, casually crossed, are rendered with such simple strokes, yet they convey everything. Now, notice the figure behind her, almost dissolving into a tangle of black lines and marks, she’s a mystery compared to the woman in front. Kirchner was part of Die Brücke, a group who felt an urgency to capture modern life. You could see parallels with Edvard Munch’s raw emotionality, though Kirchner brings a different kind of edge, a specifically German expressionism. Like all good art, it's more about feeling than knowing, a conversation that’s always open to interpretation.