Bela Czobel Nude 

Bela Czobel made this print of a nude figure in an unknown year with etching on paper. What does it tell us about the making and collecting of art? The rough lines and sombre mood of the piece are typical of the expressionist style, which emerged in Germany in the early 20th century, and which was later suppressed and condemned by the Nazi regime. Czobel was part of a generation of artists who sought to break with the conservative traditions of academic art and explore new forms of expression. Expressionism explored the darker and more anxious elements of the human psyche. To understand art like this we can research manifestos, pamphlets, and exhibition reviews, finding how artists argued about their practice and how critics responded. In doing so we learn to see art as a product of cultural debate and the expression of political and social forces.