Horizontales-Vogel-Wesen 1920

This is Horizontales-Vogel-Wesen, by Johannes Molzahn. It's a print on paper, and though undated, it most likely dates to the early 1920s. You see this image in reverse, as though looking into a mirror: it's the nature of the printing process. The artist would have used gouges to cut away the negative space from a block of wood, leaving the design raised. This was then inked and pressed against the paper. Note the contrast between the areas where the wood bears down, leaving a consistent density of ink, and the lighter marks where the woodgrain creates visual texture. Molzahn’s design, a kind of geometricized bird, would have taken time to realize, demanding a skilled hand. Prints like these were relatively inexpensive to produce, which made them ideal for distribution in a modern, democratized art world. They are a reminder that even a single sheet of paper can carry great expressive weight.