The Strike 1955

Robert Ernst Marx made this linocut print, The Strike, and the way he’s handled the block is so immediate, so visceral. The shapes aren’t just shapes, they’re events! Look at the way he’s carved the lines to define the birds. It’s all about this back and forth between control and accident, a real conversation with the material. I love how the colors—red, gray, black—aren’t just descriptive. They’re emotional hits. Especially that red, popping against the grayscale. It’s like a quick jab. There are lines all over, quick, scratchy, like he was trying to catch something that was always moving away from him. It reminds me a bit of those early 20th-century expressionists, like Kirchner, who were also trying to capture the raw energy of modern life through bold colors and jagged lines. It’s like the image is about to fall apart, but somehow it holds together. Art, like life, is a balancing act.