Composition IX - Crescents 1934

Werner Drewes made this woodcut print, Crescents, using a subtractive method, carving away at the block. I imagine him puzzling over the composition, how to create a dynamic yet balanced image. You can see how the contrasting shapes push and pull against each other – the sharp angular forms versus the softer crescent moons, all in stark black and white. What must it have been like to physically carve away the wood, each cut a commitment? Drewes played with abstraction and symbolism and this work feels like it’s part of a wider conversation with artists from different periods and places. He’s investigating geometry, space, and how the flat picture plane can evoke depth. Prints like this remind me that artists are always in dialogue across time, riffing off one another, each mark building upon the collective history of image making, and our experience. They offer us new ways of seeing and understanding the world around us.