Groep figuren in een boog 1923

Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita made this woodcut, "Groep figuren in een boog", sometime before 1944, and just look at how he’s carved those lines. It’s all about the push and pull between black and white, how the marks themselves create form and depth. It feels so immediate, like you’re right there in the artist's studio watching the process unfold. The stark contrast of black ink on paper gives the piece a real graphic punch. Check out the way he uses parallel lines to define the figures, so simple yet so effective. There's this one character with a hat; the lines there, they almost vibrate, don't they? It’s like the whole scene is buzzing with energy. You can feel the artist's hand at work, the pressure he applied to the tool, the decisions he made in each moment. De Mesquita's work reminds me a little of Käthe Kollwitz, especially in the way he captures the human figure. But really, this print speaks in its own unique voice. It shows us that art is always an ongoing conversation, a back-and-forth between artists across time and space. It’s alive, open to interpretation.