Leda and the Swan 1917

Heinrich Campendonk made this stark and evocative woodcut, Leda and the Swan. You can almost feel the artist’s hand as he carved into the wood block, methodically peeling back the surface to reveal the image, line by line, area by area. The image depicts the classical myth, but there's something wild and untamed about it. I imagine Campendonk wrestling with the story, trying to capture the moment of transformation, the shift from human to something else. Look at those angular forms, that contrast between light and dark. They're not just describing a scene, they’re conveying a feeling, an energy. It’s like he's channeling the Expressionists, like Kirchner or Heckel, but with his own idiosyncratic twist. You sense the way artists are in conversation, borrowing and riffing off one another. This print reminds us that art isn’t just about representation, it’s about embodied expression and emotional resonance. And that's a conversation worth continuing, don’t you think?