Call of the Earth (Ruf der Erde)
Georg Kolbe
German, 1877–1947
1933
An etching of a nude figure in a dynamic, reaching pose in which Kolbe pares the body's mass down to a few assured, sculptural lines to evoke a primal bond with the earth.
What strikes you is the economy of the mark: sweeping, foreshortened limbs and a turned-away head are defined by minimal, confident contours set against a softly speckled, neutral ground.
Better known as a sculptor, Kolbe used prints like this to translate three-dimensional volume into spare linear terms, helping modern artists renew classical figure representation in the interwar period.
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
plate: 8 1/16 x 10 5/16" (20.5 x 26.2 cm); sheet: 12 11/16 x 15 13/16" (32.2 x 40.2 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller
Accession
244.1935
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
