Evening 1921

Carl Thiemann made this moody woodcut called 'Evening.' Imagine him, carefully carving away at the wood, thinking about Japanese masters like Hokusai and Hiroshige, but doing his own thing. The way the boat sits heavy in the water, a kind of maroon presence against the pale, silvery sky—it’s like a memory or a feeling, isn’t it? The texture is amazing, so grainy and soft at the same time. Look at the reflection of the sail, broken up into these vertical streaks. It makes the water feel alive, like it’s breathing. I wonder if he was thinking about the light? Probably. Artists are always thinking about light. It probably felt good to make this and get all these ideas out, since it feels as though he had them all inside. It kind of reminds me of some paintings I've made. You get that sense of artists in conversation with each other across time. In the end, we're all just trying to figure out how to translate the world into something we can share.