Joseph and His Brothers IX 1966

Peter Lipman-Wulf made this print, Joseph and His Brothers IX, using a pinkish-red ink to depict a biblical scene. There's an overall dreamy, almost hazy, quality. It's all about the line work which feels very immediate, like the artist worked directly onto the plate with a kind of urgency. The color gives it a sensual vibe, right? Look at the way the figures are intertwined; it's almost hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. I'm drawn to the hands, these sort of ambiguous gestures that could be interpreted in so many ways. Maybe they're pushing away, or reaching out, or perhaps even just holding on. Wulf’s approach to printmaking reminds me of someone like Max Beckmann, who also used printmaking to explore psychological and emotional themes. Ultimately, this piece resists easy answers and encourages us to linger with the uncertainty and complexity of human relationships.