Woman, Man, and Servant (Frau, Mann, Diener) 1918

Emil Nolde made this etching called, 'Woman, Man, and Servant,' and the texture is all about the bite of the acid on the metal, a real process-heavy kind of mark making. The tonal range is narrow, almost like a rubbing, and the space feels shallow. It’s like all the figures are pressed up against the picture plane. I love the way the scene is built from tiny, almost frenetic marks. The figures emerge slowly, like a photograph developing in a darkroom tray. The servant’s face is especially striking; it’s like a mask, with these deep, dark eyes that seem to stare right through you. Nolde was part of the Expressionist movement, and you can see that here in the raw emotion and simplified forms. There’s something almost grotesque about the way he renders the figures, but it’s also incredibly powerful. Think about other expressionists like Kirchner or Heckel, who shared Nolde’s interest in the darker side of human experience. For Nolde, art was a way to confront the uncomfortable truths about ourselves and the world around us, and he didn't care about pretty!