The Widow II 1922

Kathe Kollwitz made this stark woodcut, The Widow II, sometime in the first half of the 20th century, using a reductive process to carve the image directly from the block. The contrast here between black and white is so intense, it’s like a scream on paper. I’m drawn to how Kollwitz uses these graphic marks to build form. Look at the way she renders the faces, they’re a mess of lines, but they still manage to convey such raw emotion. There's a heavy, almost sculptural quality to the way she carves out the shapes, creating a tactile surface that practically begs to be touched. It’s like she's wrestling with the material, trying to extract some truth from it. And that texture – you can almost feel the weight of the grief bearing down on you. There’s a raw, vulnerable quality to Kollwitz’s work that reminds me of Paula Modersohn-Becker, both artists fearlessly explored themes of motherhood, loss, and the complexities of human experience. It’s never just one thing, is it? It’s always layered, messy, and open to interpretation.