Gaukler 1902 - 1918

Maria Uhden made this arresting woodcut, "Gaukler," sometime before 1918, using stark contrasts to capture a scene of acrobats. The way she handles the woodblock is so direct; you can feel the pressure of the tool digging into the surface. It’s almost like she's wrestling with the material itself, a real give and take. Look at the strongman on the left, the way his body is built from these solid, blocky shapes. There’s a raw energy in the way the forms are simplified, but it gives them a real sense of presence. The black ink is laid down so thickly that it almost feels like you could reach out and touch it, adding to the physicality of the piece. The hatching and cross hatching around the central figures creates a claustrophobic energy, reminiscent of a circus act. Uhden, like other expressionist artists such as Kirchner, was interested in capturing the raw energy of urban life in Germany in the years before the first world war. This work captures that feeling so well.