Dancing Couple 1909

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this striking woodcut, "Dancing Couple," using a plank of wood, cutting tools, and printing ink. Woodcut is a relief printing technique, where the artist carves an image into the wood's surface. The remaining raised areas receive ink, then the image is transferred to paper. This process gives the image its bold lines and graphic quality, as the wood's grain and texture become integral to the print. The woodcut process is labor-intensive. Each print requires the artist to physically carve the design, ink the block, and press it onto paper. This contrasts with the mechanization of industrial production. Kirchner and his fellow Expressionists embraced woodcut because it allowed for direct, visceral expression. The roughness of the medium mirrored the raw emotion they sought to convey in their art, challenging the traditional hierarchy between fine art and craft.