Zusammengekrümmter weiblicher Rückenakt nach links, den Kopf gesenkt c. 1926

Georg Kolbe drew this nude using graphite, maybe in the 1920s, and it’s now at the Städel Museum. I'm thinking about Kolbe looking at his model, trying to capture the weight of her form, the way her back curves, and the tension in her neck. The pose almost looks painful, or maybe she’s just really tired. You can see Kolbe working and reworking the lines, especially around the head and shoulders, as he tries to get it just right. When you draw from life, the body is never still, so you’re always chasing a ghost, trying to catch something that’s always moving away from you. It’s a process of constantly adjusting and responding to what you see, hoping to somehow nail the feeling of a person in a pose. That’s drawing. All artists share this struggle. It's a conversation across time, inspiring and informing each other’s practice, and creating new ways of seeing and understanding the world.