Opus XXXI 1921

This is Opus XXXI, a black ink print made by Johannes Molzahn. Look at how these crisp, geometric marks carve up the space. It’s like he's building a world out of shape and line. I love the starkness of the black ink, and how it contrasts with the pale ground of the paper. It's so direct and to the point! Notice the sharp edges and zig-zagging lines, they give the piece a real sense of energy. Then there’s this face, hiding amongst all these shapes. It almost feels like it’s emerging from the chaos, or maybe dissolving into it. Works like this always make me think of artists like Hannah Höch, who were also playing with abstraction and figuration at this time. The beauty of art is that it’s always a conversation, an ongoing exchange of ideas. I think that art embraces ambiguity and multiple interpretations over fixed or definitive meanings.