Two Heads Looking at Each Other 1930

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this print of Two Heads Looking at Each Other using woodcut. There's an intensity to the starkness of the black and white. The heavy, bold lines carve out these figures, almost violently. Look at how the lines define the faces, looping and swirling, creating a sense of unease, yet also a strange intimacy. Those eyes, staring…or are they? They almost seem to look inwards, lost in thought. And then there’s the texture. You can feel the grain of the wood, the way the knife bit into the surface. It's a physical process, a kind of wrestling with the material. This isn’t smooth or refined; it’s raw, urgent. Those lines create tension, they’re like raw exposed nerves. Kirchner's work often taps into the nervous energy of the modern world. It is reminiscent of Edvard Munch, grappling with similar themes of anxiety and alienation. Art’s not about answers, it's about the conversation.