Lovers c. 1914

Paul Gangolf's woodcut 'Lovers' is made from stark black and white contrasts, and teeming with a flurry of sharp lines. Imagine Gangolf, back in the early 20th century, carving away at that block, each line a decisive cut, a commitment. You feel his focus, right? Maybe he was thinking about Kirchner or Schmidt-Rottluff, those other expressionist printmakers grappling with modern love and anxiety. There's a rawness here, a directness. The lovers are entangled in a thicket of marks. It's like, are they embracing or fighting? Is it tenderness or desperation? That scratchy texture, the way the white space pushes against the black—it's all about tension. It's not just a picture of lovers; it’s a feeling, an emotional space created through the physical act of cutting and printing. It’s a conversation with the material, with other artists, and with himself. And now, with us.