Maler M. (Original Title) 1930

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this woodcut print, ‘Maler M’, using stark black lines on a creamy background. I can almost feel the artist carving into the block, wrestling with the wood to create this image. The contrast is so bold, so immediate. It's a portrait, but it’s also a statement. The sharp angles and the way the features are simplified – the brow, the nose, the cigarette jutting out – give the subject an almost defiant look. What was Kirchner thinking as he carved away at the wood, each line a deliberate act? I see echoes of the German Expressionists, that raw emotional intensity, but also a nod to the graphic clarity of earlier woodcuts. Artists are always in conversation, riffing off each other, pushing boundaries, making something new from the old. And here, it's like Kirchner is saying, 'This is what it feels like to be alive, to be an artist, to see the world in jagged edges and stark contrasts.’