Old Man with a Cane 1901

This is "Old Man with a Cane" made by Abraham Walkowitz in 1901, most likely with ink on paper. I find the sketchiness of the lines really charming; like Walkowitz was trying to capture the essence of this old man with a kind of frenetic energy. The surface is alive with these tiny, almost frantic marks that fill the space around him. They’re like a swarm, or maybe just the air crackling with the old man’s presence. Looking at it, I can almost feel the scratch of the pen on paper, the quick, decisive movements of Walkowitz’s hand, and the way the lines build up to create depth and shadow. Check out the area around the old man's feet. The lines there are more horizontal, suggesting a ground, but they're also loose and wavy, like the world is shifting beneath him. It's like Walkowitz is saying that nothing is fixed, everything is in flux. You can see some of this searching, restless line work in the drawings of someone like Giacometti. In the end, it's not about perfection but about capturing a moment, a feeling, a sense of being alive in the world.