Arrestatie van kale man door soldaten 1953

Valentin le Campion made this small woodcut, Arrestatie van kale man door soldaten, sometime between 1861 and 1952, creating a scene packed with tension and drama using only stark contrasts of black and white. The artist creates a sense of chaos, the figures rendered with bold lines and a high level of detail, especially in the rendering of the fabrics and the architectural setting, all created by carving away at the block. I love how the composition is broken into different scenes; the main action framed within a rectangle, yet with two vignettes playing out above and below. The repetition of figures across these separate moments gives the scene a cinematic quality, almost like a storyboard. Look at the bald man's face. The mouth agape and eyes wide; we feel the shock of the moment. This one figure encapsulates the whole, both formally and metaphorically. The influence of earlier printmakers like Durer is clear, however, Campion's graphic novel approach feels surprisingly contemporary, highlighting how art is never truly new, but a remixing of ideas across time.