Dancer (Tanzerin) 1913

Emil Nolde made this print called, "Dancer," and well, it looks like he was just going for it! The orangey-red color really pops. You can see the grain of the woodblock and the way he layered the ink. It's like he's trying to capture the feeling of movement and sound, rather than getting every detail perfect. There's a kind of reckless energy in the way he's smearing and blotting the ink around. Look at the dancer's hair! It’s just this big, luscious blob of black. So good! It makes me think of Paula Modersohn-Becker, another German artist, who was also pushing the boundaries of representation at the time. They were both figuring out how to make art that wasn't just about what things look like, but about how they feel. Art, for them, was all about finding new ways to experience the world.