Johannes Wüsten
Railway Accident (from the portfolio Dance of Death), 1928
Kupferstich Print 23.5 × 15.5 cm
150 €
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The copper engraving "Eisenbahnunglück" (Railway Disaster) from the "Totentanz" (Dance of Death) portfolio depicts the catastrophe of a train accident in dramatic intensity. In a swirling structure of falling bodies, twisted rails, wheels, and shattered masts, a head-first plunging figure dominates the composition. With masterful engraving technique and sharp diagonal dynamism, Johannes Wüsten makes the horror of sudden death in the modern technical world immediately palpable. The copperplate engraving was published in 1994 by the Griffelkunst-Vereinigung Hamburg e.V. and bears a stamp from his estate on the reverse.
About the Artist Johannes Wüsten
Johannes Wüsten (1896–1943) was a significant figure of the New Objectivity. Initially shaped by Expressionism, he arrived — after training under Otto Modersohn in Worpswede and years in Hamburg — at a precise, socially critical visual language; from 1929 he devoted himself above all to copper engraving, which he brought to masterly perfection. Wüsten was a committed anti-fascist and belonged to a resistance group in Görlitz; in 1934 he was forced into exile in Prague and Paris, where he worked as a writer and illustrator for anti-fascist magazines. In 1943 he died as a political prisoner in the Brandenburg-Görden penitentiary. His comparatively small but technically outstanding body of work unites artistic quality with profound historical significance.
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