Still Life with Blue Fish 1955

Werner Drewes made this print, Still Life with Blue Fish, and when I look at the strong colours and bold carving, I can almost feel him pressing the block onto the paper. The colours are quite something, aren’t they? The blues and greens of the fish, set against the red and white stripes of the plate. You can see how Drewes is playing with the contrast between the organic forms of the fish and the geometric patterns of the background, which is a push-pull I like to explore in my own work. It makes you wonder what he was thinking when he made it. Was he trying to capture a fleeting moment of beauty, or was he exploring deeper themes of life, death, and decay? It kind of reminds me of Marsden Hartley and those great American Modernists. You know, we’re all just talking to each other, these artists, across time. Drewes' work is part of an ongoing conversation, and it's up to us to keep listening and responding.