Christus Possibly 1930

Lodewijk Schelfhout etched Christus, sometime before 1943, with a clear love for mark-making. It’s like he’s thinking through the image, line by line. The texture is everything here; you can almost feel the scratch of the etching tool on the plate, the way the ink grabs onto the paper. It's so immediate, so physical, that you feel the artist's hand. Look at the hair, how some of the marks seem to float away from the face, giving it air and movement. Then see the strong, dark lines defining the beard. Each mark carries weight, emotion. Schelfhout reminds me of Käthe Kollwitz, someone who used a similar directness and intensity of line to convey deep human feeling. Art is always in conversation. It’s about finding your own voice, but also about listening to what others have said before you. It's not about answers but staying with the questions.