Head Of A Woman With Long Braids 1925

Mikuláš Galanda made this ‘Head of a Woman with Long Braids’ using woodcut, a relief printmaking technique. To make this print, Galanda would have used a knife or gouge to carve an image into the surface of a block of wood, leaving the printing parts level with the surface, while removing the non-printing parts. The presence of the hand is evident in the carved lines of the woodcut. Galanda has skillfully used the parallel lines to create the illusion of form and shadow, giving the woman's face a sense of depth and volume. Woodcut is also a relatively accessible medium, which aligns with the social context of the interwar period, where there was a growing interest in art that was accessible to the masses. Ultimately, Galanda’s choice of material and process speaks to a broader cultural interest in folk art, nationalism, and the handmade, challenging traditional distinctions between fine art and craft.