Une Averse A Metalanim. Ponape, Est Carolines 1935

Paul Jacoulet made this colour woodblock print, Une Averse A Metalanim, sometime in the first half of the twentieth century. What strikes me is the flat planes of colour, the way the tones shift so subtly in the faces of the women and in the tan fabric they huddle beneath. It’s the kind of simplicity that comes through incredible control. Take a look at the rain. See how each thin line of rain is distinct and separate, perfectly rendered. Each seems to have been given the same care and consideration as the broad leaves behind the figures, or the small pink flower perched above one of the women’s ears. That flower, with it’s simple concentric circles, reminds me of some of the prints of Emil Nolde, with his bold colours and simplification of forms. But where Nolde is all bold gestural marks, Jacoulet seems to revel in the subtle and precise. Art making, at its heart, is just a conversation between artists, echoing and answering each other across decades.