Koe bij een lariks 1930

Bernard Essers made this woodcut print, Koe bij een lariks, with simple marks in a very limited palette. The stark contrast between the black ink and the white paper creates a high-impact image, a process of reduction. Look closely, and you can see how the artist used the lines to define form and space. The tree looming behind the cow is a mass of swirling lines, almost like a storm cloud. But there’s a delicacy to the lines, too, a sensitivity in how they curve and intersect. That single cow down at the bottom is standing in the water, represented by parallel horizontal lines. It's solid and real. Essers' image reminds me a little bit of some woodcuts by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Like with the German Expressionists, it captures a feeling more than depicting a literal scene. Art is always an ongoing conversation, I think. It is open to interpretation.