Malay Woman with her Children 1921

Svend Rathsack made this sculpture of a Malay woman and her children from an unknown material sometime in the early 20th century. I love the way the surface of the sculpture looks so worked and reworked, like the artist was feeling his way through the material to arrive at this final form. You can almost see the push and pull of the artist's hand, the additions and subtractions that give the piece its rough-hewn quality. Look at the way the folds of the woman's shawl are rendered, the way they seem to both define and obscure her form. There's a tension there, between revealing and concealing, that I find really compelling. The overall effect is of a solid, grounded group, brought to life through the artists touch. You can see echoes of artists like Ernst Barlach in Rathsack's work, those earlier expressionists who sort to express inner emotion and feeling through the human form. But ultimately, it’s Rathsack's own unique sensibility that shines through.