Dancers 1911

Erich Heckel made this woodcut, ‘Dancers’, sometime in the 1940s. It’s all scratchy lines and flat colours, like he’s just grabbed whatever was lying around to make it, which is so my kind of artmaking. The colours are muted, like an old poster left out in the rain, except for the skirts, which have this vibrant red, like lipstick. What I love is how he hasn’t tried to hide the process, you can practically feel the knife scraping across the wood. Look at the dancer in the middle, how her leg kinda disappears into the background. It’s like she’s not quite there, but still full of energy. Heckel was part of Die Brücke, and you can see that shared interest in raw expression, like Kirchner. But where Kirchner is all jagged edges, Heckel has a softer touch. It’s a reminder that art is always a conversation, with artists borrowing and responding to each other. This print isn’t trying to be perfect, and that’s what makes it so alive.