Taubenjäger im Gehölz, Fehmarn 1912

Editor: This woodcut, "Taubenjäger im Gehölz, Fehmarn" created around 1912 by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner... there's a tension here that really grabs me. The harsh blacks and whites and the somewhat unnerving facial expressions of the hunters. What strikes you when you look at it? Curator: Well, the starkness does leap out, doesn't it? It reminds me a little of raw emotion, the kind you can only scream into the void... Kirchner was grappling with anxieties about modern life at this time, wasn't he? Do you see any signs of it here, lurking behind the trees? Editor: Absolutely. The figures almost seem swallowed by the forest, overwhelmed by it, or threatened. Curator: Precisely. The figures, the "hunters," look rather more like trespassers, uneasy in nature. The thick, almost brutal lines of the woodcut intensify that feeling, right? Almost a premonition... Perhaps that even war is coming to snatch us from nature? Editor: The scene feels chaotic and almost claustrophobic with these deep shadows. Curator: It’s Kirchner translating inner turmoil into visual form. Notice how the traditional landscape genre gets a really unsettling makeover? Instead of harmony, it offers friction. Editor: The more you point out, the more complex this print becomes... Do you think the location, Fehmarn, holds any clues? Curator: Intriguing question. Fehmarn was an island where Kirchner went for solace. So, it adds a layer of irony to it all, doesn’t it? A refuge depicted as menacing... What an idea, huh? Editor: That adds a really interesting dimension. It almost feels like he's hunting for peace but only finding more chaos. Curator: Beautifully said. A search that leads deeper into the thicket. Maybe art-making itself was that sort of hunt for Kirchner.