Kirkegård, grave under høje træer 1930

This is a print of a graveyard, grave under tall trees, by Henry Nielsen. It’s all in shades of black ink, which gives it this dramatic, almost gothic feel. Nielsen seems to be grappling with the process of image-making itself, laying down marks that are direct and raw. The density of the blacks is amazing. The eye is drawn to the blank gravestone, rendered as negative space against the marks around it. This one area is like a space of absence, a void in the composition. The texture is rough and immediate, and I wonder if he used some unusual tools to apply the ink. You can see the way the ink sits on the surface; it’s not trying to hide its own materiality. Nielsen tragically died young. The themes of death and mortality here, viewed through the lens of printmaking, remind me a bit of Edvard Munch. There's a shared sensibility, a Northern European intensity. Both are examples of art that favors expression and feeling over the illusion of realism.