Composition / Sun in the Center 1918

Arnold Topp made this woodcut, called Composition / Sun in the Center, using stark black ink on paper. The sun bursts out with jaggedy teeth, like an angry toddler's drawing! Topp must have been consumed by the process, carefully carving out the lino, each cut a commitment. I imagine him wrestling with his materials. The composition pulses with energy. I wonder if he felt like he was capturing some elemental force, the sun not as a friendly presence but as a raw, untamed power. It reminds me of Franz Marc, only without the pretty colors. The houses feel like they’re cowering from the sun’s intensity. It's pretty raw. You can feel him figuring out what he was doing as he was doing it. And that's what makes it so great. It’s like a conversation between the artist and the block of wood.