Bassist 1969

This is Chaim Goldberg’s woodcut, Bassist. The stark black and white immediately grabs you, right? It's not just about what’s depicted but how it’s depicted—the aggressive cuts, the way the white lines are so deliberately carved. Look at the musician’s face. See how Goldberg uses these dense, close lines to create depth and shadow? It’s like he’s chiseling away at the darkness to reveal the form, a testament to Goldberg’s background in sculpture. It’s so tactile, you can almost feel the weight of the wood. And the repetitive lines creating the sky reminds me of Van Gogh, that feeling of motion and emotion! What I love about prints like this is how they transform a scene into something raw and immediate. This piece feels like a conversation across time, a dialogue with expressionist roots. It's a powerful reminder that art is never finished, only abandoned.