Das Konzert 1938

Editor: This is "Das Konzert," or "The Concert," created by Imre Reiner in 1938. It’s a woodcut print, and it immediately strikes me as both playful and unsettling. There's a rawness in the lines, a kind of anxious energy. What symbolic language do you see at play here? Curator: Indeed, the roughly hewn woodcut lends itself to the emotionally charged atmosphere. Think about the mask-like faces, some in the background almost spectral. Masks have always been used for ritual and performance but also for concealment, and these are flattened, almost inhuman. How might this flatness contribute to the feeling you identified as "unsettling?" Editor: Perhaps it's the loss of individuality? They become archetypes rather than people. And is that figure in the foreground part of the concert, or in the audience? The turned head gives a sense of removal. Curator: Precisely. Reiner made this work during a time of growing societal anxiety in Europe. Music often carries associations of harmony, but what happens when the musicians wear masks, and the audience member seems to be turning away? The "concert" itself becomes a stage for something more sinister. Do you see echoes of other symbolist art in its concern with interior psychological states? Editor: Definitely, I’m reminded of Munch and the way he used distortion to convey inner turmoil. So the concert isn’t just a concert, it’s a reflection of societal unease rendered through symbolic figures. I see it differently now, as less about the beauty of music and more about the precarity of the era. Curator: And note how the graphic nature of woodcut allows for these dark contrasts and stark divisions that speaks so clearly to the underlying tensions. This visual language gives it an enduring psychological resonance. Editor: This really shifted my understanding—from simply seeing a scene of musicians to recognizing how visual symbols create deep layers of cultural commentary. Thank you. Curator: It is in revisiting how we use images to communicate collective experiences that pieces like this find continued relevance.