The Sacrifice 1922

Kathe Kollwitz made this woodcut, ‘The Sacrifice,’ in 1923, and right away you notice that the harsh cuts into the wood create these intense black and white contrasts, which for me speaks to the rawness of the subject matter. I’m drawn to the way the surface feels almost brutal, raw, like the artist really wrestled with the material, and you can see that struggle in the heavy lines that define the figures. Look at the mother’s face, the deep lines etched around her eyes and mouth. Each mark feels like a carving out of grief, a physical manifestation of emotional pain. The starkness of the medium amplifies the emotional weight, there’s no hiding, no softening. The relationship between Kollwitz's work and that of someone like Paula Modersohn-Becker comes to mind—both artists unafraid to confront difficult truths about women's lives, each using the tools at hand to carve out new ways of seeing and feeling. For me, art isn’t about answers, but about embracing the questions and doubts.