Seated Figure 1919 - 1920

This is Max Weber's woodcut, "Seated Figure." The nature of woodcut, the way it renders light and shadow, is stark. It is about acceptance: you accept what the medium gives you. The process is one of reduction; you carve away what you don’t want. The figure is shrouded, contained in solid black. But I am drawn to her hands, clasped together in her lap. They are quite round, puffy even, especially in contrast to the sharp, almost severe lines of her face. The hands remind me of organic forms, something soft and yielding. Weber studied with Matisse, and you can see some similarities in their simplified forms. But unlike Matisse, Weber seems less interested in beauty than in raw expression. The way he contrasts the rigid lines with these almost vulnerable hands is powerful and strange. He reminds me of someone like Kirchner, or another expressionist who understood the emotional punch that comes from the simplicity of mark-making. It’s a testament to how art, at its best, is a constant conversation across time and mediums.