Abstracte compositie 1919

Erich Wichmann made this abstract composition in 1919 by carving into what looks like a woodblock. I imagine him using sharp tools to gouge out these white shapes, creating stark contrasts between light and dark. I can feel his hand moving across the block, guided by intuition and a desire to disrupt the surface. He must have been thinking about how to create a sense of depth and movement with such limited means. The marks are bold and decisive, but also kind of playful, like he’s discovering the image as he goes. Look how those white areas almost seem to float against the dark background. Wichmann is playing with positive and negative space, pushing the boundaries of representation. It’s like he's inviting us to see the world in a new way, one where abstraction and figuration blur together. His conversation is one that echoes through the practices of other artists, an ongoing conversation that invites us to embrace uncertainty and find new meanings in the act of looking.