"Was der blitz! Das ist ja die gustel von blasewitz" ("What's That! It's Gustel von Blasewitz") 1923

Lovis Corinth made "Was der blitz! Das ist ja die gustel von blasewitz" with etching. Imagine him hunched over a plate, using a needle to draw through a waxy ground, the metal exposed, ready for the acid bath. It’s all nervous energy here, isn’t it? Look at the frenetic lines, how they build up to create these figures. The artist is scratching away, trying to capture a likeness, or maybe a feeling. I get the sense that he is wrestling with the image, trying to pin it down but also letting it breathe. I wonder what he was thinking about as he made this print? Was he trying to capture a fleeting moment, a sense of recognition, or maybe just the sheer joy of mark-making? There's a real connection between Corinth’s mark-making and, say, some of the German Expressionists who followed. They all seemed to share that intensity. The kind that comes from putting everything you have into each line. It's like they are all in dialogue with each other across time. That’s what art is, after all, a big, messy, beautiful conversation.