Opus XXXI 1921

Johannes Molzahn made this linocut, Opus XXXI, sometime around 1924, by cutting into linoleum and printing it onto paper. I can really imagine him, working with a set of sharp tools to carve out this image of geometric forms. It looks like an abstract face, or maybe an architectural plan for a new kind of city? Look at how he plays with texture, using tiny zigzags to create shadows. The face looks like a ghost, but not a scary one. I like how the linocut medium makes the image so stark, almost brutal. It reminds me a little of some of the German Expressionist woodcuts, the way they use rough lines and bold contrasts to convey emotion. Molzahn was part of a generation of artists trying to find new ways of representing the world after the trauma of World War I. He developed his own visual language through abstraction. He's having a conversation with the avant-garde, with the Bauhaus, with folks like Kandinsky and Klee... It makes me wonder what they'd all say if they could see this print now.