December 1917

This is Julie de Graag's 'December,' a print made with woodcut around 1917. Look how she coaxes the image out of the wood, using simple shapes and lines. It's like the cat is being unwrapped. The texture comes from the grain of the wood itself, giving the piece a tactile quality. The way the colours, black and beige, are laid down creates this snugness, a kind of winter quiet. It's so simple and graphic. I'm really drawn to the way the stripes of the cat’s fur follow the curve of its body, giving it a sense of three-dimensionality, but also flattening it out, so it becomes an abstract pattern. It reminds me a little of some of the early 20th century European woodcuts. De Graag, like those artists, knew how to find that sweet spot where representation meets something much more mysterious and evocative.