Jozef 1930

Lodewijk Schelfhout made this print called Jozef in 1924 using etching. Look how he has built it up with these delicate lines, they remind me of sketching. When I sketch I think it is like a form of thinking, or feeling, aloud. The lines are dark and light, soft and scratchy, all at the same time. Take a look at the face and hands in the center. You can see how the light seems to be both within and outside of the figure, made with simple hatching. The lines are so close together, they almost feel like a solid mass. Around this we see what seems to be fields and a temple of some kind. All these lines give the work its texture, depth, and movement. Schelfhout reminds me a little of Paula Modersohn-Becker, who was doing similar things with line and form around the same time. But unlike Modersohn-Becker, Schelfhout is really playing with ambiguity here. Is it a biblical image? Or something else entirely?