Kalenderblad voor maart 1934 met bloemen 1933

This calendar page for March 1934, with flowers, was made by G.H. Bretschneider. It's a print, so the mark making is all about what's been taken away, cut out to leave these shapes in stark relief. I'm interested in the physical nature of this piece, you know? The texture implied by the cuts, the contrast of the black ink against the paper. It reminds me that every artwork is a physical thing. Look how the background lines mimic the form of flower stems, blurring figure and ground. There is a real tension between the bold solid black shapes of the petals, and the delicacy of the lines which form the flowers’ inner details. This feels in conversation with other printmakers, maybe someone like Félix Vallotton, who reveled in the beauty of black and white. It's a reminder that art is always a dialogue, a back-and-forth across time and between artists, with no fixed meanings.