To kvinder slås om en mand 1906

Oluf Hartmann made this small print, “Two Women Fight Over a Man,” sometime around the turn of the last century. The way he's worked the plate, it's all about moody darks and luminous lights, a dance between what's revealed and what's hidden. It's like he's digging into the metal, letting the process speak. The physicality here is striking. The textures are so raw, almost like you could reach out and feel the scuffle. See how he's built up the figures from a mass of tangled lines and tones, so they look like they're emerging from the darkness? Notice the face of the woman on the right, her features are obscured in the shadows yet her outstretched arm is full of tension. It reminds me of Käthe Kollwitz, who knew how to make anguish palpable through mark-making. There's something beautifully unresolved about it. Hartmann isn't giving us answers, he's just showing us the messy, complicated nature of human desires.