Untitled (Man with bowler hat and woman with beret) 1925

Sam Glankoff made this woodcut, titled *Untitled (Man with bowler hat and woman with beret)*, sometime during his career using black ink on paper. The image is a powerful study in contrasts, of light and dark, presence and absence, that seems to speak to the very act of artmaking itself. I'm drawn to how Glankoff uses the dense blacks of the ink to carve out these two figures from what seems to be a claustrophobic or imaginary background. The man, with his heavy brow and bowler hat, has this rigid, almost architectural feel about him. Then, beside him, the woman's face is a softer, more organic form, though no less severe. The textures are so alive! The suit is a maze of hatched lines, compared with the smoother, more solid blacks of her coat. You get the sense that every mark was a conscious decision, a push and pull between revealing and concealing. It reminds me a little of the stark, graphic quality of some of the German Expressionists, like Kirchner, but with a uniquely personal touch. This piece isn't just a portrait; it's a whole world rendered in the language of ink and wood.