Untitled (Abstraction: Bather) 1937

Carl Robert Holty made this black and white print, Untitled (Abstraction: Bather), sometime in his life. This print really puts me in mind of making woodcuts, where you are digging away at the surface to reveal an image in reductive form. Holty's bather emerges from the stark contrast, defined by sharp angles and bold shapes. I can imagine him carefully carving each line, thinking about positive and negative space, and the way light and shadow play off each other. There's something so immediate and tactile about printmaking, each decision is so considered. You can feel the artist's hand in the final product, not just in the design, but in the physicality of the process. I feel like Holty has something in common with the German Expressionists or even Matisse. This is such a cool image - simple but super evocative.