Vruchtboomen 1923

Otto Hanrath made "Vruchtboomen" using printmaking techniques, and the result is this incredibly detailed image in shades of brown. Look at how he’s built up a whole world with tiny little marks. You can almost feel the weight of the branches, heavy with fruit, and the way the light filters through the leaves. I wonder what Hanrath was thinking as he made this? I think of the way the branches arch and bend, as if trying to reach out and connect with something beyond the frame. The surface has a kind of depth through those marks, like a map of an imagined place. The way the light falls feels like it’s creating these shimmering layers of atmosphere. I'm reminded of other printmakers, people like Whistler or even the German Expressionists, who used the graphic arts to explore feelings. There’s a conversation happening here, across time and geography, about how we see and feel the world around us. It's like we’re all just talking to each other through these strange, beautiful objects.