Danseres met een heer 1929

Fons van den Berg made this woodcut, "Dancer with a Gentleman," sometime in the 1920s. It shows a dancer in a somewhat confrontational pose with a man dressed in a long dark coat and top hat. Though undated, this print can be situated within a longer history of Dutch printmaking. We can consider it in relation to the revival of these arts in the Netherlands after 1900. Artists looked to printmaking as a democratic medium, suited to conveying socialist messages and connecting to a wider public. As such, woodcuts often combined modern aesthetics with social critique. The contrast between the brightly colored dancer and the dark gentleman is especially poignant in this work. To understand this piece better, we might research the art market in the Netherlands between the wars, along with the social function of dance halls and theaters at that time. Studying the history of fashion or popular entertainment could illuminate the message in this artwork. The meaning of any artwork is bound to the social and institutional context in which it was made.