Blick ins Tal 1916

Carl Thiemann made "Blick ins Tal," or "View into the Valley," as a print, probably sometime in the first half of the twentieth century. The colors are so specific, like the blue-grey of the birch trunks against that muted yellow sky. I love the way the process is so present; you can see the hand, how the image was built layer by layer. Looking closely, you can almost feel the pressure of the block on the paper. It’s not trying to trick you into thinking it’s a photograph. See how the green lines that make up the hill are all going the same direction? It’s like he’s saying, "This is how I imagine grass." It reminds me of those really graphic landscapes by the Canadian painter Lawren Harris. There's a great honesty to prints. They are what they are, a record of a process, of a hand moving and thinking. It makes me want to get back to the studio.