Ploughman and Flocks of Birds (Pfluger und Vogelschwarm) 

Gerhard Marcks created this woodcut print, Ploughman and Flocks of Birds, depicting a ploughman with a horse in a field, in Germany. It presents a stark image of rural labor, where the ploughman and his horse are dwarfed by the field, symbolized by the vertical lines, and the flock of birds flying above. Woodcut prints like this were a popular medium for artists commenting on social issues and political movements. Marcks was associated with the Bauhaus school, which aimed to unite art, craft, and technology, but his work was later denounced by the Nazi regime. This print embodies a sense of both simplicity and the struggle of the working class. Examining Marcks's biography and the cultural history of Germany at the time, alongside studies of the Bauhaus and its fate, can give us more insight into the social context of this image and its cultural significance.