Ara before 1926

This is Ara, a woodcut print by Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita. The bird stares out at us, dark and imposing, yet also somehow delicate. The world of woodcut is so immediate and physical, the artist wrestling with the grain of the wood itself. Look at the surface, you can see the marks of the tool that carved away at the wood. The feathers rendered as clean, sharp lines, are like a language of their own. It's the little details, like the tiny Vs that suggest the texture of feathers, that really get me. There's something about the flat, graphic quality, too, that reminds me of the German Expressionist woodcuts, like those of Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, where the rough, angular forms convey raw emotion. The simplicity of the lines, the stark contrast between black and white, it’s all so striking. It's a testament to the power of simplicity, of saying so much with so little. Art isn't about answers, it's about the questions it provokes, right?