Potiphar's Wife (Potiphars Weib) 1914

This print, "Potiphar's Wife," by Wilhelm Lehmbruck, is a tangle of lines on a plate, caught somewhere between an embrace and a struggle. It's made with etching, which is like drawing with acid, a process as loaded and intense as the biblical story it tells. Look at the way Lehmbruck uses line. It's not about neatness or accuracy, it's all raw energy, a storm of marks. The etched lines create shadows and depth, yet the figures remain elusive, their forms dissolving into the surrounding space. The woman's arched back and outstretched arm, rendered with such frantic energy, feels like a physical manifestation of the tension between desire and resistance. It makes me think of Käthe Kollwitz, another German artist grappling with themes of human suffering and social injustice. Like Kollwitz, Lehmbruck uses the starkness of black and white to amplify the emotional impact of his work. This piece isn't about answers; it's about wrestling with the questions, the messiness of human experience.