The First Seven Days 1955

Fritz Eichenberg made this detailed monochrome wood engraving which he titled The First Seven Days. It's like he's channeling his inner Old Testament visionary. I can imagine him in his studio, wrestling with this block of wood, the tools in his hands becoming extensions of his thoughts. Each cut, each line, a deliberate act of world-building. I wonder if he saw himself as a kind of God, carving out creation one painstaking mark at a time. Look at the way the light bursts forth from the top of the image, radiating down onto the newly formed land, the animals, the figures. It's a powerful gesture, a visual declaration of divine energy. I see the Garden of Eden, dinosaurs, mammals, and humans all coexisting under this celestial glow. Eichenberg is in conversation with the long history of artists attempting to depict creation. I am humbled by the way artists build on each other’s visions, finding new ways to grapple with the same old mysteries.