Cosmic Circles 1919

Johannes Molzahn made this drawing, Cosmic Circles, with ink, and it's all about the push and pull of black against white, mark against the void. It's kind of a balancing act, right? The heavy blacks feel like they’re trying to take over the paper, but then you notice all these intricate details, like the little circles and geometric shapes, and they kind of hold the darkness at bay. Look at the bottom of the page, at how the ink splatters and pools. You can almost feel Molzahn tilting the page to let the ink run, giving the piece a sense of movement, like something is always shifting. It reminds me of El Lissitzky, and the way he used geometry to create these dynamic, almost utopian visions. But while Lissitzky is very precise, Molzahn feels looser, more intuitive, and that makes it feel more human. Like the cosmos itself, there are no easy answers here, just a constant state of becoming.