Totentanz 1928

Johannes Wüsten made this etching, "Totentanz," in 1928; it's a real jumble of bodies and machinery, all rendered in stark, scratchy lines. The frenetic energy of this print, its density, reminds me of diving into a bin of old tools. Look at the way Wüsten uses hatching to build up the forms, creating a kind of claustrophobic space. The longer I stare, the more the details emerge: the precise rendering of a high-heeled shoe in contrast with the looser, more gestural depiction of the figures’ faces. There is a flattened almost diagrammatic aspect to some of the forms, juxtaposed with naturalistic shading on the figures. It reminds me of some of Otto Dix's war etchings, but maybe with a touch of Goya's macabre sensibility thrown in for good measure. Ultimately, it's a pretty powerful statement about mortality and the chaos of modern life; a stark reminder that life and death are intertwined.