Portrait of Dr. Huggler 1935

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this woodcut, titled "Portrait of Dr. Huggler" with stark black ink on paper. Can you imagine Kirchner carving into that block of wood, figuring out how to make the negative space speak? I bet he felt like he was wrestling with the wood itself, trying to coax out Dr. Huggler's essence, the vase of flowers and the feeling of the room. He would have been thinking about what to leave in and what to carve away, in order to create the impression of the image. Look how the sharp lines dissect his face. It’s as though Kirchner is trying to get under this doctor’s skin, maybe showing us the tension or unease he felt at the time. What does it mean that the man's mouth is open? Is he yelling, or gasping? The black and white shapes create strong, graphic forms. It reminds me of Munch’s ‘The Scream’ or some of the German Expressionist’s interest in raw emotion, a kind of embodied expression.