Christ in Gethsemane 1919

Ernst Barlach made this woodcut, ‘Christ in Gethsemane,’ with a sharp blade. You can see the deep cuts into the block. The dark lines describe the scene, but they also feel like the weight of Christ's suffering, as it becomes a physical thing. You can see that anguish in his face, but also in the nervous lines of the landscape, in the way his followers are huddled in the background. The high contrast in the printing emphasizes the emotional tension, it’s like Barlach is carving out a space of intense feeling. The choice of black and white strips everything down to its essence. In a way, you can imagine Barlach in his studio thinking about the story. The marks are so powerful and direct that I can imagine him wrestling with the material, searching for the right form to express this profound moment of despair and faith. This reminds me a little bit of Käthe Kollwitz, who also worked with woodcut to express emotion and social commentary, in the face of suffering and death. They’re all connected, these artists working through images.