Death as a Juggler (Revolution) 1919

Christian Rohlfs made this monochromatic print called “Death as a Juggler” sometime between the late 19th and early 20th century. Imagine Rohlfs carving away at that woodblock! It looks like he was probably thinking about mortality, right? I wonder what the artist was going through when he made it… Maybe questioning authority and the meaning of life? There's this figure of death, a skeleton really, juggling what looks like human heads! The marks are so stark, black against white. That contrast makes it feel really intense, like a scream. And those other figures on the right, they seem shocked, like they can't believe what they're seeing. Rohlfs is playing with the tradition of the ‘dance of death’, but turning it into a comment about society. The art of making art; it’s always a conversation between artists across time, isn’t it?