The Blond Painter Stirner 1919

This is "The Blond Painter Stirner" by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, a woodcut. Isn’t it amazing how Kirchner managed to conjure so much expression using so few colors, and such bold, graphic marks? Look at the planes of Stirner’s face, chopped and faceted into these angular shapes with the barest hint of shading. I like the way the grain of the wood seems to be part of the drawing. The shapes are roughly hewn but the overall effect is sophisticated, as if Kirchner is turning the very act of seeing into something physical. See those white lines scratched into the brown of his face? Those sharp lines create depth, pulling the face out of the inky darkness. The way Kirchner fearlessly reduced this figure into such elemental shapes reminds me of how Picasso was also taking things apart and putting them back together in new ways. They were both part of a conversation, wrestling with how to represent the world in a way that felt true to their time. Art is always answering back to other art; that’s what makes it so exciting.