Lighthouse (Leuchtturm) 1919

This is Lyonel Feininger’s “Lighthouse”, a woodcut print. I love the way Feininger’s sharp, angular lines make the whole scene seem like it’s been shattered and reassembled. It really speaks to the kind of labor it takes to carve away at a block. Look how he uses the stark contrast of black ink on the light ground to create depth and texture. You can almost feel the roughness of the wood grain, can't you? It is like he is carving the light itself. There’s this one cluster of lines coming down from the top right. It almost feels like rain, or maybe the light radiating from the lighthouse. It adds to the overall feeling of the piece being slightly off-kilter, not quite stable. Feininger’s work always reminds me a bit of the German Expressionists. Artists like Kirchner were also playing with bold colors and simplified forms to convey emotion. It's a good reminder that art is always in conversation with itself, each artist building on what came before.