Doodskop tussen oorlogskruizen 1933 - 1935

This woodcut, Doodskop tussen oorlogskruizen, was made by an anonymous artist. It shows a skull floating above a field of starbursts and what I think are meant to be war crosses. The sharp lines, carved by hand, give the whole scene a jagged, urgent feel. There’s a real physical presence in the way the artist has worked the material, you can almost feel the pressure of the blade cutting into the wood. This is not a smooth, seamless kind of image, more like a raw scream. Look at how the crosses are rendered, each line is like a mark of aggression. It feels like a cousin to Käthe Kollwitz’s stark, emotional prints. Both tap into this deep well of human suffering and use the graphic power of printmaking to amplify it. Neither is trying to pretty things up, they get straight to the heart of the matter. Art like this reminds us that it's ok to not have all the answers.