Kale boom 1919

Julie de Graag made this woodcut print, ‘Kale Boom’, which translates as ‘Bare Tree,’ in 1919. You can almost feel the artist digging into the block with her tools, pulling away at the surface to reveal the image. The stark black lines create a kind of skeletal tree. It’s not just a tree; it’s a symbol, a stark representation of winter, maybe, or resilience. I'm imagining De Graag looking out of her window, observing this scene. The bare branches reach up, seeking something, maybe the spring, maybe something more profound. You see similar starkness and symbolism in the work of other early twentieth-century printmakers. They all have their own distinct touch. Artists are always in conversation with one another, even across time and space, riffing off each other’s ideas, finding new ways to express the same fundamental human experiences. De Graag’s simple yet evocative image reminds us of painting's capacity to convey complex emotions and ideas with just a few well-placed marks.