Mountains with a Mountain Hut 1921

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this woodcut, Mountains with a Mountain Hut, using stark blacks and whites to carve out something primordial. Look at the way the forms are built up through many small marks, like he’s scratching away to find the image. That’s process as content, right there. There’s a roughness to the textures he creates, a certain angularity which gives the work its energy. See how he contrasts the horizontal marks in the sky with the more diagonal strokes of the mountain? Even though it's just black and white, the image feels like it's vibrating with colour. I love the little hut, how it seems both sheltered and precarious at the same time. It’s like a refuge from the raw energy of nature, that figure next to it seems tiny in comparison. Kirchner was part of a group called Die Brücke, and his work has some affinities with that of Munch, especially in the way he uses the landscape to convey an emotional state. Ultimately though, Kirchner's vision is all his own. This print offers no easy answers, only the thrill of seeing an artist work through the act of making.