Max Pechstein
German, 1881 - 1955The Lord’s Prayer, 1921
Not on view
Woodcut on paper
Dimensions23 7/16 × 16 3/16 in. (59.5 × 41.1 cm)
Image: 15 5/8 × 11 5/8 in. (39.7 × 29.5 cm)
Gift of Mr. Gordon Beer, 1938.1.1
In the early 20th century, German Expressionists, such as Max Pechstein, sought to revive the woodcut technique and adopted it as their primary artistic vehicle. Starkly simplified woodcuts (in German, holzschnitte) such as Das Vater Unser (The Lord’s Prayer), capitalized on the medium's potential for bold, flat patterns and rough-hewn effects.
Pechstein studied at the School for Decorative Arts in Dresden in 1900. In 1907 he visited the Ethnographic Museum in Dresden and became enchanted by African sculpture and South Seas carvings, the influence of which can be seen in the depiction of the blocky, angular bodies in these woodcuts. Pechstein created the portfolio during a time of intense personal and social upheaval. Only two years earlier, he had been an instrumental figure in revolutionary artists’ organizations that had agitated for social reform in Germany’s newly established democracy. But like many others he quickly grew disillusioned, and, it seems, he began looking for change not through politics but through heavenly intervention.
