Dancing Figure 1919 - 1920

This is Max Weber's 'Dancing Figure', made with a woodcut. Can you imagine the artist working away with his gouges? The figure seems to be emerging from the wood itself. I love the reductive quality, the feeling of simplification. Forms are defined by hard, rhythmic lines and simplified shapes. What kind of dance is this? It feels raw and emotional. Maybe Weber was thinking about the modern dancer, someone like Isadora Duncan, throwing all that classical ballet stuff out the window. There's a real power in this image. I see connections to other artists, like Kirchner and the German Expressionists, who were also looking at modern life in a new way. It’s like artists throughout history are in this ongoing conversation, bouncing ideas off each other, pushing the boundaries of what art can be.