Woman's Profile (Frauenprofil) 1917

Emil Nolde made this woodcut, “Woman’s Profile”, sometime in his long career in Germany. Nolde was part of the Expressionist movement which was most active around the turn of the century, and his focus here is not on conventional beauty. Instead, it's on the raw emotion he conveys with the stark contrast between black and white. The heavy blocks of shadow that define the woman’s face may reflect the widespread anxiety and alienation that was the cultural and social environment of Germany in the early 20th century. Expressionist art served as a visual scream against the perceived loss of individuality within the rapidly modernizing world. To fully understand Nolde’s work, we might look into the exhibition history of the Die Brücke group of artists to which he belonged. The goal is to place him within the institutions that promoted this kind of art. The meaning of art like this is always contingent on its cultural and institutional context.