Lenin 1933

Isac Friedlander made this print of Lenin in 1939, and you can see how the black and white shapes come together to build this really imposing figure. It's all about the push and pull of the ink, a dance between light and shadow, right? I'm really drawn to the way Friedlander uses these crisp, clean lines to carve out form. Look at how the light catches on Lenin's bald head; those lines aren’t just descriptive, they’re doing the work of modeling, of turning a flat surface into something sculptural. You can almost feel the texture, the smoothness of his skin stretched over bone. And then there’s the area under his chin, where these wild, scribbly lines create this contrast with the more controlled marks elsewhere. It’s like a little explosion of energy, hinting at the revolutionary fervor bubbling beneath the surface. It reminds me a bit of Kollwitz's woodcuts, that same sense of raw emotion and social commentary.