Woodcut/engraving
In Joachim Dunkel's oeuvre, the woodcuts occupy a special position. Created only in the years 1948-49 and 1991-99, their immediate force and expressive compactness, which sometimes has something almost threatening, is astonishing. On sheets of often almost mighty format, crowded representations develop, reduced to concise, yet always representational forms, to which the striking black-and-white contrast peculiar to the medium lends a suggestive power. It is characteristic that the settings of the scenes play no role, or at most an extremely minor one, limited to hints. In this way, the sculptor, the artist who "speaks" primarily through his figures, who thinks in figures and concentrates entirely on their posture and gestures, comes into his own.
Motifs of the nearly 50 early wooden sticks: Variété and circus, carnival and mask, fantasy animal and rider, male and female single figure, couple figure, scenes from the Bible. Motifs of the nearly 50 late woodblocks: Reineke fox, Hubertus stag, dance of death, death in the afternoon (bullfight), female figure, scenes of Orpheus, Marsyas, Actaeon, Daphne, Adonis, Hector.
