Compositie met gezichten en zwanen 1923

Bernard Essers created this monochrome print, Composition with Faces and Swans, using a subtractive process; he carved away at a block of material to leave only what we see. The whole thing shimmers with contrasts of light and dark. A flock of birds fly across a night sky above a huddle of figures, their faces turned to us with an almost confrontational gaze. Look at the way Essers uses the stark graphic nature of his medium to describe the flowing forms of the swans, and the way he picks out the details of the faces of the figures. There's an emotional intensity in the compressed space, and a dreamlike quality in the symbolic imagery. It reminds me of the work of the German Expressionists, like Kirchner or Heckel, who also used the woodcut to explore the darker side of the human psyche. Art is a conversation, and this piece is a powerful contribution.