Knabenkopf Andreas 1924

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this striking woodcut, Knabenkopf Andreas, using just black ink on paper. The high contrast and simple palette immediately give it a bold, graphic punch. For me, art is all about process, and in printmaking, that’s doubly true. The texture here is fascinating, you know? The way the ink sits on the paper, sometimes thick and dense, other times a little more transparent, like it's catching the light. It's like Kirchner is playing with positive and negative space. Look at the hair, those lines are so sharp, so deliberate. And then notice the cat, lurking in the background. It’s a small detail, but adds an unsettling element of depth. Kirchner was part of Die Brücke, a group of German Expressionist artists. You can really see the influence of other woodcut artists, like Edvard Munch, in his work, but Kirchner brings his own raw energy and emotional intensity to the medium. Art, for me, is about those conversations across time. It's an ongoing dialogue, a constant push and pull of ideas.