Brothers Karamazov 1919

Erich Heckel made this woodcut, Brothers Karamazov, using just black ink on paper. The nature of woodcut allows for very expressive mark making. He’s using a range of marks, from long lines that create volume, to these really short, scratchy marks that define the facial features. It’s all about the contrast between the black and the white. The starkness gives the image a kind of rawness. Look at the faces, all these deeply etched lines. You can see the artist digging into the wood, making these really expressive marks. The medium lends itself to a kind of boldness that’s not about perfection. Heckel reminds me a little of Käthe Kollwitz, who was also making prints at this time, dealing with themes of poverty and social injustice. There’s something about the way that the image is so stripped back that invites us to bring our own understanding to it. And maybe that’s what art is all about, a constant conversation across time and space.