Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Another artist i have been asked to look at for my print making unit is Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and i have been asked to look at his woodcuts.

So before i started i wanted to have a look at woodcuts and understand them, last week i was looking at a book called "printing without a press" and it spoke about woodcuts and the history of them. So i read that woodblock printing is a technique for printing images, patters and text. It originated in China.

So essentially it is carving into wood, rolling ink over it and putting it on the paper and pressing it down. The history of this technique as i started reading was HUGE and deserves its own post, something i am working on for my own print making.

So the first image i found of Kirchner's woodcuts was this one below...

"Five Women on the Street" (1914), woodcut on blotting paper, by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

I found this print striking because of the use of line, i love the sharpness of it. The women have very un naturalistic body shapes, and the faces remind me of the faces in les demoiselle avignon because they remind me of african masks. I love the stillness of the women compared to the back ground, the sharp and quick marks make me feel the movement in the engraving process. I love the darkness of the black but i did find another woodcut he did in colour.

Qualen der Liebe (Pangs of Love)" (1915), colour woodcut from two blocks on wove paper, by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

I found this one very dramatic, the blue, i find, bring an over all feeling of sadness but the red i feel is quite violent. The face i feel is very full or torment and the long claw like hand coming down bring in a feeling of dread.

Very powerful i think, i really like these woodcuts and it has sparked my interest into woodcut prints... i want to learn more and i am wondering how to do two colours with a wood print? i think i will look into that in my printing report.

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