Head and Shoulders of Figure 1919 - 1920

Max Weber made this woodcut, Head and Shoulders of Figure, and the thing that grabs me is the way he fearlessly uses color. It’s not about matching reality; it’s about feeling the weight and mood of each hue. Look at the mouth. It’s just a slash of red, but it brings the whole face alive. The texture is incredible too, isn't it? You can almost feel the grain of the wood and the pressure of the cut, like a topographical map of the artist’s hand. The long white stripe for the nose divides the face into different zones. There's a kind of architectural quality to this face, but the colors soften the blow. Weber reminds me of Marsden Hartley, another American modernist who wasn't afraid to mix abstraction with raw emotion. In the end, it’s not about what the face looks like, it’s about how it makes you feel. That’s the beauty of art, right?