Seated Woman 1919 - 1920

This is 'Seated Woman' by Max Weber. It's a woodcut, a printmaking technique where you carve into a block of wood, ink it, and press it onto paper. I can just imagine Weber carefully cutting away at the block, defining the shapes of the woman's body and the space around her. It's all done in this lovely, earthy red-brown color. The lines are so bold, so decisive. Look at the way he's suggested the form of her breasts, the curve of her head. It's a powerful image. I wonder what Weber was thinking about when he made this? Was he trying to capture a sense of strength, or vulnerability? Maybe both? It reminds me of Gauguin's interest in the primitive, and yet, it's also very modern in its simplification of form. Artists are always looking at each other's work, riffing off of it, responding to it. That's how art keeps moving forward, you know? Each piece is part of this ongoing conversation.