Nude with Goat in Front of a House 1918

Heinrich Campendonk made this woodcut, Nude with Goat in Front of a House, using stark black lines to carve out a dreamlike vision. I can imagine him carefully gouging out the wood, each cut precise, deliberate. It's a landscape that feels both familiar and strange. I'm drawn to the way the artist uses positive and negative space. There's a real tension between what's there and what's been taken away. The shapes are simplified. Yet they communicate so much. The title tells me there is a nude with a goat, but so much more is going on. What are these characters thinking? There's something wonderfully primal about his approach, which reminds me of other expressionist artists. He's reaching for something deep, tapping into a collective unconscious. It’s about the expression of feeling, the artist's inner world made visible. It's like we're all constantly borrowing and lending ideas, adding our own little spin. That's what art is all about, right? A big, ongoing conversation.