Untitled 1920

Johannes Molzahn made this untitled print with lots of dark lines and squiggles, all scratched into a plate. I wonder what he was thinking about when he made this. It looks kind of mechanical, a bit like the inside of a clock maybe. The lines are really packed together in some places, which makes those spots look darker. Then other areas are more open, with just a few lines here and there. I like the way he’s got these curly shapes, almost like the letter S, dancing around the sharper, more angular bits. It reminds me that artists are always looking at what others have done, and then adding their own twist. You can see bits of Cubism and Dada in here, but Molzahn definitely had his own thing going on. These artists are all in conversation, borrowing and building on each other’s ideas, and making something totally new and interesting in the process.