Artwork Page for Man on a Plain (Self-portrait) (Mann in der Ebene [Selbstbildnis])

Details / Information for Man on a Plain (Self-portrait) (Mann in der Ebene [Selbstbildnis])

Man on a Plain (Self-portrait) (Mann in der Ebene [Selbstbildnis])

1917

Erich Heckel

(German, 1883–1970)
Culture
Germany
Medium
woodcut on wove paper
Measurements
Image: 37.8 x 28.3 cm (14 7/8 x 11 1/8 in.); Sheet: 70 x 55.9 cm (27 9/16 x 22 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Davis in memory of Harvey Buchanan and Penelope Draper Buchanan 2016.598
Catalogue raisonné
Dube 305, state II/II [state IIA, outside the edition of 40]
Edition
Proof before the edition of 40 published in Eleven Woodcuts, 1912–1919 (Elf Holzschnitte, 1912–1919)
Copyright
© Artists Right Society (ARS), New York
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print

Description

Erich Heckel made this woodcut while he was working as a wartime ambulance driver in Ostend, Belgium; it portrays his own perception of the oppressiveness of war. Avoiding overt signs of the conflict, Heckel instead depicted himself on the verge of despair, his hands clasped to his head. The jagged lines of the sky relay the weight of the world. He used a gouged woodblock to create a landscape full of movement yet desolate, one that offers no escape from the suffering.
Print in black ink of an abstracted man from waist up, looking to our left and holding his fingertips to his forehead, wider than the rest of his face, which narrows towards the chin. His lips turn down, eyes wide, and black creases cover his face. His solid black clothes contrast with the patterned background, moving from textured rock-like silhouettes in the upper half, to intersecting lines then flaked away chunks in the lower.

Man on a Plain (Self-portrait) (Mann in der Ebene [Selbstbildnis])

1917

Erich Heckel

(German, 1883–1970)
Germany

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