ROHLFS 2023.226

A serpentine line traces the fluid movements of two nude figures, who dance with their backs to one another in this lively woodcut. Confined tightly within the frame, the dancers’ simplified bodies and stylised gestures reference tribal art forms, suggesting the influence of Primitivism – an artistic concept idealising the ‘primitive’ or natural state of non-Western cultures as superior to Western ‘civilisation’ which was popular at the turn of the century – on the German Expressionist artists.

Christian Rohlfs became a prolific printmaker at the age of 60 after encountering an exhibition of works by the expressionist group Die Brücke (The Bridge). He was heavily influenced by the way in which the Die Brücke artists experimented with reduced (and at times distorted) forms to elicit an emotional response and a nostalgia for a simpler existence.